AllMovie

A tall, exotic-looking character actor from Naples, Fred Malatesta is today best remembered for a bit as a waiter in Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), a distinctive case of typecasting. Educated in Rome, Malatesta performed a stint in the Italian army prior to embarking on a worldwide stage career that would eventually lead to Broadway. The strapping actor went on to appear in countless action-melodramas and serials throughout the silent era, more often than not playing an exotic villain or a foppish foreigner. His roles grew increasingly smaller after the changeover to sound and he later moonlighted as a set decorator.