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
Remember Last Night? (1935) subtitle poster
Remember Last Night?
1935 Movie
as Mme. Bouclier
Subtitles
The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942) subtitle poster
The Adventures of Martin Eden
1942 Movie
Subtitles
A Lost Lady (1934) subtitle poster
A Lost Lady
1934 Movie
as Rosa
Subtitles
I'll Give a Million (1938) subtitle poster
I'll Give a Million
1938 Movie
as Barmaid
Subtitles
She Done Him Wrong (1933) subtitle poster
She Done Him Wrong
1933 Movie
as Russian Rita
Subtitles
The Washington Masquerade (1932) subtitle poster
The Washington Masquerade
1932 Movie
as Mona Farrell
Subtitles
One Frightened Night (1935) subtitle poster
One Frightened Night
1935 Movie
as Elvira
Subtitles
A Little Bit of Heaven (1940) subtitle poster
A Little Bit of Heaven
1940 Movie
as Mme. Lupinsky
Subtitles
As You Desire Me (1932) subtitle poster
As You Desire Me
1932 Movie
as Lena
Subtitles
The League of Frightened Men (1937) subtitle poster
The League of Frightened Men
1937 Movie
as Dora Chapin
Subtitles
We're Only Human (1935) subtitle poster
We're Only Human
1935 Movie
as Mrs. Anderson
Subtitles
Enchanted April (1935) subtitle poster
Enchanted April
1935 Movie
as Francesca
Subtitles
The Last Gentleman (1934) subtitle poster
The Last Gentleman
1934 Movie
as Retta Barr, Judd's wife
Subtitles
Married? (1926) subtitle poster
Married?
1926 Movie
as Maid
Subtitles
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