Carlotta Monti (Actor)

Small-part actress in occasional films of the 1930s ("Deadwood Pass" 1933, "Night Cargo" 1936), best known to film buffs as W.C. Fields' longtime companion. Fields spotted the Mexican-Italian Monti on the set of the near-surreal "Million Dollar Legs" (1932) and the two became companions that same year. She can be spotted in small roles in such Fields vehicles as "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" (1941), but perhaps her most notable part came in his comedy "Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1935), in which Monti played his devoted and adoring secretary. In her later years she wrote an autobiographical memoir about her decade-plus with the master comedian, "W.C. Fields and Me", which was filmed in 1976 with Rod Steiger as Fields and Valerie Perrine playing Monti.