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
- Vigil in the Night as Mrs. Henrietta Sullivan
- Victory as Madame Makanoff
- A Little Bit of Heaven as Mme. Lupinsky
1939
- Paris Honeymoon as Fluschotska
1938
- Marie Antoinette as Louise - Marie's Maid (uncredited)
- Suez as Maria De Teba
- I'll Give a Million as Barmaid
1937
- Seventh Heaven as Madame Frisson
- The League of Frightened Men as Dora Chapin
- Maytime as Ellen
1936
- The Devil-Doll as Malita
- Anthony Adverse as Signora Bovino
- Mad Holiday as Ning
- That Girl from Paris as Nikki's Personal Maid (uncredited)
- Riffraff as Matron (as Rafaelo Ottiano)
1935
- The Lottery Lover as Gaby's Maid
- The Florentine Dagger as Lili Salvatore
- We're Only Human as Mrs. Anderson
- Curly Top as Mrs. Higgins
- Enchanted April as Francesca
- Remember Last Night? as Mme. Bouclier
- One Frightened Night as Elvira
1934
- A Lost Lady as Rosa
- Great Expectations as Mrs. Joe
- Mandalay as Madame Lacalles
- The Last Gentleman as Retta Barr, Judd's wife
1933
- She Done Him Wrong as Russian Rita
- Bondage as Miss Trigge
- Ann Vickers as Mrs. Feldermans
- Female as Della, Alison's Maid (Uncredited)
1932
- Grand Hotel as Suzette
- Night Court as Evil Tongued Neighbor (uncredited)
- As You Desire Me as Lena
- The Washington Masquerade as Mona Farrell
1926
- Married? as Maid