Rafaela Ottiano
Born: 1888-03-02 in Venice, Italy
Died: 1942-08-14
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rafaela Ottiano (4 March 1888 – 18 August 1942) was an Italian-born American stage and film actress. Born in Venice, Italy, she emigrated with her parents to the United States, and was processed at Ellis Island, in 1910. Ottiano established herself as a stage actress in Europe before arriving in Hollywood in 1924 and appearing in American motion pictures. Ottiano's first film was in the John L. McCutcheon-directed drama The Law and the Lady (1924) opposite actors Len Leo, Alice Lake, and Tyrone Power, Sr. Ottiano was part of the original 1928 Broadway cast of the Mae West hit play Diamond Lil and reprised her role as Rita when the play was made into a film as She Done Him Wrong (1933), directed by Lowell Sherman. Throughout the 1930s, Rafaela Ottiano would often specialize in roles as sinister, maleveolent, or spiteful women, such as her role in the Tod Browning-directed horror film The Devil-Doll (1936), opposite Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan. Other notable film roles for Ottiano include Lena in As You Desire Me (1932) with Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Erich von Stroheim, Owen Moore, and Hedda Hopper; Mrs. Higgins in the Shirley Temple musical-comedy Curly Top (1935); as a matron in the crime-drama Riffraff (1936), starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy; and as Suzette, Greta Garbo's devoted maid, in the Edmund Goulding-directed drama Grand Hotel (1932). When Grand Hotel was turned into a Broadway Musical in 1989, her character was renamed Rafaela Ottiano in honor of the actress. Ottiano's last film was the musical comedy I Married an Angel (1942), starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. During her career in film, she appeared in approximately 45 motion pictures, opposite such actors as Barbara Stanwyck, Conrad Nagel, Peter Lorre, Zasu Pitts, and Katharine Hepburn. Ottiano lived in the Times Square area during the Prohibition Era and never married. She died in 1942 in East Boston, Massachusetts of intestinal cancer at the age of 54. Description above from the Wikipedia article Rafaela Ottiano, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
1941
- Topper Returns as Lillian
1940
- The Long Voyage Home as Bella
- Victory as Madame Makanoff
- Vigil in the Night as Mrs. Henrietta Sullivan
- A Little Bit of Heaven as Mme. Lupinsky
1939
- Paris Honeymoon as Fluschotska
1938
- Marie Antoinette as Louise - Marie's Maid (uncredited)
- I'll Give a Million as Barmaid
- Suez as Maria De Teba
1937
- The League of Frightened Men as Dora Chapin
- Maytime as Ellen
- Seventh Heaven as Madame Frisson
1936
- Riffraff as Matron (as Rafaelo Ottiano)
- Anthony Adverse as Signora Bovino
- The Devil-Doll as Malita
- That Girl from Paris as Nikki's Personal Maid (uncredited)
- Mad Holiday as Ning
1935
- Curly Top as Mrs. Higgins
- Remember Last Night? as Mme. Bouclier
- The Florentine Dagger as Lili Salvatore
- The Lottery Lover as Gaby's Maid
- Enchanted April as Francesca
- We're Only Human as Mrs. Anderson
- One Frightened Night as Elvira
1934
- Mandalay as Madame Lacalles
- A Lost Lady as Rosa
- Great Expectations as Mrs. Joe
- The Last Gentleman as Retta Barr, Judd's wife
1933
- She Done Him Wrong as Russian Rita
- Ann Vickers as Mrs. Feldermans
- Female as Della, Alison's Maid (Uncredited)
- Bondage as Miss Trigge
1932
- Grand Hotel as Suzette
- As You Desire Me as Lena
- Night Court as Evil Tongued Neighbor (uncredited)
- The Washington Masquerade as Mona Farrell
1926
- Married? as Maid