Argentina Brunetti, the veteran character actress who was unforgettable as Mrs. Martini in Frank Capra's holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946), died of natural causes on December 20 in Rome, Italy. She was 98.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 31, 1907, Brunetti followed her Sicilian mother, actress Mimi Aguglia, into the theater. Beginning with a walk-on role at age three in the opera Cavalleria Rusticana, she spent the rest of her childhood performing all over South America and Europe in various stage productions. In 1937, she began her career in Hollywood when she dubbed the voices of Jeanette MacDonald and Norma Shearer into Italian. She earned her first significant role in front of the camera when she played Mrs. Martini, an Italian immigrant in It's a Wonderful Life, in which George Bailey (James Stewart) helps her large family achieve the American dream by purchasing a house.

Her performances may have been a variation on a similar theme (the big hearted immigrant of Latin or Mediterranean persuasion), but her strong vocal delivery and energetic presence made her more than a welcome addition to a host of films in the '50s: The Great Caruso (1951), My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Caddy (1953), Anything Goes (1956); and what most critics generally considered her best performance, as a mother trying to keep her sons from getting involved with the mafia, The Brothers Rico (1957). When the film offers slowed down, Brunetti turned to television, and in the '60s, guest starred in a majority of the hit shows of the day: The Untouchables, Bonanza, Rawhide, Route 66, and The Fugitive.

When her acting career slowed, Brunetti wrote several articles about her life in Hollywood for various publications in Europe and Canada. Yet she wasn't finished with acting all together, and she landed a guest spot as a long lost Italian relative in the second season of Everybody Loves Raymond (1997-98); and made a final film appearance in the Rodney Dangerfield comedy The 4th Tenor (2002).

If you're at all curious about this actress, and any tales regarding her profession and the industry, by all means, go to www.argentinabrunetti.com, and check out what the world's oldest internet blogger (her words not ours) had to say about her years in show business. She is survived by her son, Mario; plus several grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole