[1] Her sisters were Rafaela Bellizia Ottiano, who died in infancy, and Maria Fransesca "Francis" De Stefano, who moved with her to New York City on April 30, 1899.

[1] The house was valued at USD 6000 in 1930, and the three unmarried Ottiano brothers; Patsies, James, Augustino, later moved with them as did their uncle and aunt, Nelson and Jennie Mottola.

She made her film debut in the John L. McCutcheon-directed drama The Law and the Lady (1924) with Len Leo, Alice Lake, and Tyrone Power, Sr. Ottiano was part of the original 1928 Broadway cast of the hit play Diamond Lil, written by and starring Mae West.

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).

During her film career, she appeared in approximately 45 motion pictures, with actors such as Barbara Stanwyck, Conrad Nagel, Peter Lorre, Zasu Pitts, and Katharine Hepburn.