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Rafaela Ottiano

Actor
Born March 2, 1888Died August 14, 1942 (54 years)
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.

Movies & Shows on Plex

  • Topper Returns

Known For

  • The Devil-Doll
  • She Done Him Wrong
  • Curly Top
  • Maytime
  • As You Desire Me
  • Mandalay
  • A Lost Lady
  • Enchanted April
  • All Men Are Enemies

Filmography

1942
I Married an Angel · as Madelon
1942
1941
1940
Victory · as Madame Makanoff
1940
1940
Vigil in the Night · as Mrs. Henrietta Sullivan
1938
Paris Honeymoon · as Fluschotska
1938
Suez · as Maria De Teba
1938
Marie Antoinette · as Louise - Marie's Maid (uncredited)
1938
I'll Give a Million · as Barmaid
1938
The Toy Wife · as Felicianne
1937
1937
Maytime · as Ellen
1937
Seventh Heaven · as Madame Frisson
1936
That Girl from Paris · as Nikki's Personal Maid (uncredited)
1936
Mad Holiday · as Ning
1936
Anthony Adverse · as Signora Bovino
1936
The Devil-Doll · as Malita
1935
Riffraff · as Matron (as Rafaelo Ottiano)
1935
We're Only Human · as Mrs. Anderson
1935
Crime and Punishment · as Landlady
1935
Remember Last Night? · as Mme. Bouclier
1935
Curly Top · as Mrs. Higgins
1935
1935
The Florentine Dagger · as Lili Salvatore
1935
Enchanted April · as Francesca
1934
Great Expectations · as Mrs. Joe
1934
A Lost Lady · as Rosa
1934
The Last Gentleman · as Retta Barr, Judd's Wife
1934
All Men Are Enemies · as Filomena
1934
Mandalay · as Madame Lacalles
1933
Female · as Della, Alison's Maid (uncredited)
1933
Ann Vickers · as Mrs. Feldermans
1933
She Done Him Wrong · as Russian Rita
1932
The Washington Masquerade · as Mona Farrell
1932
Night Court · as Evil Tongued Neighbor (uncredited)
1932
As You Desire Me · as Lena
1932
Grand Hotel · as Suzette

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