Kitty Carlisle Hart is a American singer, actress, and spokeswoman for the arts. She is probably best known from being a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth under her stage name Kitty Carlisle. She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and named Catherine Conn. She was educated in Switzerland, then at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics. She studied acting in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
She got her acting start in America at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. She appeared, billed as Kitty Carlisle, on Broadway in several operettas and musical comedies, and in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Her early movies included a role in the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera and two films with Bing Crosby.
She became a household name through To Tell the Truth, where she was a regular panelist for 15 years, appearing on each version from 1956 to 2002. She married playwright Moss Hart on 10 August 1946. He died 21 December 1961. They had two children. Known for her gracious manners and personal elegance, late in life she became prominent in social circle of New York City as she crusaded for financial support of the arts.
She was appointed to various state-wide councils, and was chairman of the New York State Council of the Arts for 20 years. She also served on the boards of various New York City cultural institutions. She resumed her acting late in life, appearing in Woody Allen's Radio Days and in Six Degrees of Separation, as well as on stage in a revival of On Your Toes.
In 2006, Carlisle performed at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York City, in St. Louis, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, Atlanta, Georgia, and at the famed Plush Room in San Francisco. According to her official website, her appearances in Atlanta in November 2006 were her last public performances, as she had already contracted the pneumonia that would lead to her death six months later.
She died on April 17, 2007 from congestive heart failure resulting from a prolonged bout of pneumonia. She had been in and out of the hospital since she contracted pneumonia some time prior to November 2006. She died peacefully in her apartment, with her son, Christopher Hart, at her bedside. She was buried in a crypt next to her husband, Moss Hart, at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.