LOS ANGELES — Adult industry history site the Rialto Report published a podcast last week including the last interview with actress, dancer, model and performer Kitten Natividad, who passed away in Los Angeles on Sept. 24 at age 74.
According to the Rialto Report, the cause of death was “kidney failure after suffering from cancer.”
The Rialto Report’s Ashley West penned a moving tribute to Natividad, a legendary Los Angeles dancer originally from Mexico, who gained worldwide fame in mainstream erotic auteur Russ Meyer’s “Up!” (1976) and “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” (1979).
Natividad, West wrote, “was a genuine cult pop culture figure who, over the last six decades, had a wild life and a storied career: she started out as a cook and maid ... was a go-go dancer on the Sunset Strip, and a beauty queen in the early 1970s when she was twice elected Miss Nude Universe.”
Other mainstream appearances by the buxom Natividad include “Lady in Red,” “Another 48 Hours” and “Airplane!”
In recent years Natividad was “a legendary in-demand burlesque dancer appearing in sold-out shows all over the world. But perhaps The Rialto Report remembers her most fondly for her appearances in two of Russ Meyer’s later films ... for many years she and Russ were the first couple of sexploitation movies, partners on set as well as in life — quite a feat given Russ was not an easy man to live with.”
After they split, Natividad made a series of hardcore adult films before “re-inventing herself as a grand dame of bawdy, raunchy, good clean fun,” West noted.
Natividad’s IAFD entry lists 61 performer credits, starting in 1976 and continuing through the mid 1990s, including iconic “Golden Age of VHS”-era titles like “Thanks for the Mammories.”
In his Rialto Report tribute, West shared that “in person, Kitten was a force of nature, and a person we never grew tired of. She had a gentle, angelic smile, but don’t be fooled: she was a feisty, tough, old-fashioned dame. In truth, she ran circles around us: we emerged from every conversation with her feeling like we had been mauled by a bear, played with like a rag doll, and made love to by a goddess.”
“She may have been named Kitten, but she was more like a hungry tiger.”
To listen to “R.I.P. Kitten Natividad – La Reina, Her Last Interview — Podcast 123,” visit the Rialto Report.