Rafaela Ottiano
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1888-03-02
Day of Death
1942-08-14 (54 years old)
Place of Birth
Venice, Italy
Rafaela 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.
Known For
Acting
(1942)
(1941)
Topper Returns
as Lillian
(1940)
The Long Voyage Home
as Bella
(1940)
Victory
as Madame Makanoff
(1940)
Vigil in the Night
as Mrs. Henrietta Sullivan
(1940)
A Little Bit of Heaven
as Mme. Lupinsky
(1939)
Paris Honeymoon
as Fluschotska
(1938)
Marie Antoinette
as Louise - Marie's Maid (uncredited)
(1938)
Suez
as Maria De Teba
(1938)
I'll Give a Million
as Barmaid
(1937)
Maytime
as Ellen
(1937)
Seventh Heaven
as Madame Frisson
(1937)
The League of Frightened Men
as Dora Chapin
(1936)
Anthony Adverse
as Signora Bovino
(1936)
The Devil-Doll
as Malita
(1936)
Mad Holiday
as Ning
(1936)
That Girl from Paris
as Nikki's Personal Maid (uncredited)
(1936)
Riffraff
as Matron (as Rafaelo Ottiano)
(1935)
Curly Top
as Mrs. Higgins
(1935)
The Florentine Dagger
as Lili Salvatore
(1935)
Enchanted April
as Francesca
(1935)
One Frightened Night
as Elvira
(1935)
The Lottery Lover
as Gaby's Maid
(1935)
We're Only Human
as Mrs. Anderson
(1935)
Remember Last Night?
as Mme. Bouclier
(1934)
Great Expectations
as Mrs. Joe
(1934)
A Lost Lady
as Rosa
(1934)
Mandalay
as Madame Lacalles
(1934)
The Last Gentleman
as Retta Barr, Judd's wife
(1933)
She Done Him Wrong
as Russian Rita
(1933)
Female
as Della, Alison's Maid (Uncredited)
(1933)
Ann Vickers
as Mrs. Feldermans
(1933)
Bondage
as Miss Trigge
(1932)
Grand Hotel
as Suzette
(1932)
As You Desire Me
as Lena
(1932)
Night Court
as Evil Tongued Neighbor (uncredited)
(1932)
The Washington Masquerade
as Mona Farrell
(1926)
Married?
as Maid