Kitty Carlisle

Born Catherine Conn on September 3, 1910, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Kitty Carlisle was the daughter of Joseph Conn and Hortense Holtzman. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and apprenticed with the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. She married dramatist Moss Hart; their children were Christopher and Catherine Hart. As chairman of the New York Council on the Arts, she lobbied both the New York State Legislature and the United States Congress for arts funding. Her autobiography, "Kitty: An Autobiography," was published in 1988.

Film credits include "Catch Me If You Can," "Six Degrees of Separation," "Radio Days," "A Night at the Opera," "Hollywood Canteen," "Here Is My Heart," "Murder at the Vanities," "She Loves Me Not," and "The Powder & the Glory." Television credits include "What's My Line?," "Great Performances," "The Match Game," "American Masters," "The Ed Sullivan Show," and "To Tell the Truth."

She received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1960. The National Endowment of the Arts awarded her the American National Medal of the Arts in 1991. The New York Landmarks Conservancy named her a "living landmark" in 1998, and she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1999.

Her one-woman show, "Kitty Carlisle Hart: An American Icon," toured various American cities. Broadway theater marquees were dimmed in her honor on April 18, 2007.