Argentina Brunetti

Argentina Brunetti (August 31, 1907 – December 20, 2005)[1] was an Argentine stage and film actress and writer.

Argentina Brunetti
Born
Argentina Ferrau

(1907-08-31)August 31, 1907
Buenos Aires, Argentina
DiedDecember 20, 2005(2005-12-20) (aged 98)
Rome, Italy
OccupationActress
Years active1910–2002
Spouse(s)Miro Brunetti
(m. 19??; died 1966)
Children1

Biography

Brunetti was born Argentina Ferrau in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Italian parents; her mother was the Sicilian actress Mimi Aguglia.[2] She began her show-business career at the age of three with a walk-on role in the opera Cavalleria Rusticana and followed in the footsteps of her mother, performing supporting roles on stage throughout Europe and South America.[1]

In 1937, she was placed under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began dubbing the voices of Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer into Italian. She became a narrator for the Voice of America, interviewing American movie stars for broadcast in Italy. At the same time, she made her movie debut in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) as Mrs. Maria Martini.[3]

Brunetti wrote and performed in daily radio shows; she became a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, writing numerous articles on Hollywood personalities; she authored books, wrote music, and appeared in nearly 60 television programmes and almost 70 films.[3] She hosted a weekly weblog on the Internet called Argentina Brunetti's Hollywood Stories, which her son plans to continue running, and wrote a biographical novel called In Sicilian Company. She continued to act into her nineties, most notably as a relative from the Old World who visits and stays with the (wrong) Barone family in a 1999 episode of Everybody Loves Raymond; her last role was in 2002.

Marriage

She wed Miro Brunetti, a foreign correspondent in Hollywood. The two helped to co-found the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The couple had one son, Mario. Miro Brunetti died in 1966. Argentina Brunetti never remarried.

Last years/death

She moved to Rome in 2004 to be with her family and died there from natural causes on December 20, 2005, aged 98.

Filmography

References
  1. "Argentina Brunetti". Independent. January 2, 2006. Archived from the original on 1 November 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. Estavan, Lawrence (1991). The Italian Theatre in San Francisco. Wildside Press LLC. p. 99. ISBN 9780893704643. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  3. Martone, Eric (2016). Italian Americans: The History and Culture of a People. ABC-CLIO. p. 288. ISBN 9781610699952. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
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