Nina Quartero

Biography

Nina Quartero was born Gladys Quartararo on March 17, 1908 in New York City. She came from a close family and was the youngest of seven children. Nina started acting in a Booklyn stock company when she was a teenager. She was signed by director D.W. Griffith and was an extra in the films Sorrows Of Satan and The Show Off. For several years she was billed as "Gladys Quartaro". When she auditioned for the Ramon Navarro film Romance the studio said she looked too young. Then director James Cruze saw her screen test and gave her the lead in the 1928 drama The Red Mark. Her performance earned rave reviews and her future in Hollywood seemed bright. Sadly in February of 1928 she suffered a nervous breakdown. She started dating actor Reed Howes and they were rumored to be engaged. Nina's olive skin and Spanish-Italian ancestry allowed her to play many different types of characters. She worked with Olive Borden in The Eternal Woman and with John Wayne in Arizona. In 1933 she starred in the hit horror film The Monkey's Paw and signed a five year contract with Hal Roach. As a publicity stunt she told the press she was engaged to a football quarterback named Frank Carideo. Unfortunately Frank denied the engagement and demanded an apology from her. She married John C. Outhet, a millionaire from Chicago, in 1934. They divorced three years later and she married publicist Joseph C. Shea. Sadly this marriage also ended in divorce. Although Nina never became an A-list star she continued to get small parts in movies like Wife Vs. Secretary and Torchy Blane In Panama. Her final film was the 1943 comedy A Lady Takes A Chance. She retired from acting and lived a quiet life in Woodland Hills, California. Nina died on November 23, 1985 at the age of seventy-seven.