Rafaela Ottiano photo

Rafaela Ottiano

Acting
1888-03-02
Venice, Italy
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.
Known For 38 titles
Grand Hotel (1932) subtitle poster
Grand Hotel
1932 Movie
as Suzette
Subtitles
Marie Antoinette (1938) subtitle poster
Marie Antoinette
1938 Movie
as Louise - Marie's Maid (uncredited)
Subtitles
Topper Returns (1941) subtitle poster
Topper Returns
1941 Movie
as Lillian
Subtitles
Curly Top (1935) subtitle poster
Curly Top
1935 Movie
as Mrs. Higgins
Subtitles
The Long Voyage Home (1940) subtitle poster
The Long Voyage Home
1940 Movie
as Bella
Subtitles
The Devil-Doll (1936) subtitle poster
The Devil-Doll
1936 Movie
as Malita
Subtitles
Suez (1938) subtitle poster
Suez
1938 Movie
as Maria De Teba
Subtitles
Anthony Adverse (1936) subtitle poster
Anthony Adverse
1936 Movie
as Signora Bovino
Subtitles
Seventh Heaven (1937) subtitle poster
Seventh Heaven
1937 Movie
as Madame Frisson
Subtitles
Great Expectations (1934) subtitle poster
Great Expectations
1934 Movie
as Mrs. Joe
Subtitles
Vigil in the Night (1940) subtitle poster
Vigil in the Night
1940 Movie
as Mrs. Henrietta Sullivan
Subtitles
Female (1933) subtitle poster
Female
1933 Movie
as Della, Alison's Maid (Uncredited)
Subtitles
Maytime (1937) subtitle poster
Maytime
1937 Movie
as Ellen
Subtitles
Mandalay (1934) subtitle poster
Mandalay
1934 Movie
as Madame Lacalles
Subtitles
Bondage (1933) subtitle poster
Bondage
1933 Movie
as Miss Trigge
Subtitles
Night Court (1932) subtitle poster
Night Court
1932 Movie
as Evil Tongued Neighbor (uncredited)
Subtitles
Riffraff (1936) subtitle poster
Riffraff
1936 Movie
as Matron (as Rafaelo Ottiano)
Subtitles
A Lost Lady (1934) subtitle poster
A Lost Lady
1934 Movie
as Rosa
Subtitles
Ann Vickers (1933) subtitle poster
Ann Vickers
1933 Movie
as Mrs. Feldermans
Subtitles
She Done Him Wrong (1933) subtitle poster
She Done Him Wrong
1933 Movie
as Russian Rita
Subtitles
Victory (1940) subtitle poster
Victory
1940 Movie
as Madame Makanoff
Subtitles
Remember Last Night? (1935) subtitle poster
Remember Last Night?
1935 Movie
as Mme. Bouclier
Subtitles
Mad Holiday (1936) subtitle poster
Mad Holiday
1936 Movie
as Ning
Subtitles
The Lottery Lover (1935) subtitle poster
The Lottery Lover
1935 Movie
as Gaby's Maid
Subtitles
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