Rafaela Ottiano

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Rafaela Ottiano 4 March 1888 18 August 1942 was an Italianborn 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 Ottianos first film was in the John L McCutcheondirected 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 Browningdirected horror film The DevilDoll 1936 opposite Lionel Barrymore and Maureen OSullivan 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 musicalcomedy Curly Top 1935 as a matron in the crimedrama Riffraff 1936 starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy and as Suzette Greta Garbos devoted maid in the Edmund Gouldingdirected 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 Ottianos 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 CCBYSAfull list of contributors on Wikipedia