Argentina Brunetti, a veteran character actress who played multiethnic roles in films and on television for more than 50 years, including the Italian immigrant Mrs. Martini in Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” has died at age 98.
She died in her sleep Tuesday in Rome. She moved there last year to live with her son Mario and his family.
Ms. Brunetti had small roles in more than 90 movies, including Dean Martin’s mother in the 1953 comedy “The Caddy” with Jerry Lewis. In the film, Martin sings “That’s Amore” to her.
She frequently was cast as a mother, playing that role in “The George Raft Story” starring Ray Danton, for example. But she also was the wife of Cochise, played by Jeff Chandler, in “Broken Arrow” and the French maid who gives Bing Crosby suggestions on how to court her boss in “Anything Goes.”
Beginning in the early 1950s, Ms. Brunetti also appeared in more than 60 TV shows, from “Hopalong Cassidy” to “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Also a writer, she was a founding member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. She wrote a weekly column for Italian-language publications in Canada and Italy.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1907, she followed her Sicilian mother, actress Mimi Aguglia, into the theater, performing in supporting roles on stages throughout Europe and South America.
Ms. Brunetti’s first credited film role was in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in 1946, in which James Stewart helps her large family buy a house.
