Rafaela Ottiano

Rafaela Ottiano

  • Birthday: 1888-03-02
  • Deathday: 1942-08-14
  • Place of birth: Venice, Italy
  • Also know as: Rafaella Ottiano

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

The Devil-Doll

1936

As Malita

Curly Top

1935

As Mrs. Higgins

As You Desire Me

1932

As Lena

Great Expectations

1934

As Mrs. Joe

She Done Him Wrong

1933

As Russian Rita

Paris Honeymoon

1939

As Fluschotska

Married?

1926

As Maid

Maytime

1937

As Ellen

The Last Gentleman

1934

As Retta Barr, Judd's wife

A Lost Lady

1934

As Rosa

The Washington Masquerade

1932

As Mona Farrell

The Florentine Dagger

1935

As Lili Salvatore

Bondage

1933

As Miss Trigge

Enchanted April

1935

As Francesca

Victory

1940

As Madame Makanoff

The Lottery Lover

1935

As Gaby's Maid

Mandalay

1934

As Madame Lacalles

We're Only Human

1935

As Mrs. Anderson

The League of Frightened Men

1937

As Dora Chapin

Grand Hotel

1932

As Suzette

Topper Returns

1941

As Lillian

The Long Voyage Home

1940

As Bella

Mad Holiday

1936

As Ning

One Frightened Night

1935

As Elvira

That Girl from Paris

1936

As Nikki's Personal Maid (uncredited)

Female

1933

As Della, Alison's Maid (Uncredited)

Seventh Heaven

1937

As Madame Frisson

Ann Vickers

1933

As Mrs. Feldermans

Remember Last Night?

1935

As Mme. Bouclier

Suez

1938

As Maria De Teba

Night Court

1932

As Evil Tongued Neighbor (uncredited)

A Little Bit of Heaven

1940

As Mme. Lupinsky

I'll Give a Million

1938

As Barmaid

Anthony Adverse

1936

As Signora Bovino

Riffraff

1936

As Matron (as Rafaelo Ottiano)

Vigil in the Night

1940

As Mrs. Henrietta Sullivan

Marie Antoinette

1938

As Louise - Marie's Maid (uncredited)

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