Remembering Robert Loggia, A Gruff Character Veteran With An Odd Resume

The Oscar-nominated actor Robert Loggia, 85, who was known for gravelly voiced gangsters from Scarface to The Sopranos but who was most endearing as Tom Hanks’ kid-at-heart toy-company boss in Big, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles after a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Variety first broke the news of Loggia’s death.

A solidly built man with a rugged face and rough voice, Mr. Loggia (pronounced LOH-juh) fit neatly into gangster roles, playing a Miami drug lord in “Scarface” (1983), which starred Al Pacino; and a Sicilian mobster in “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985), with Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner. Loggia was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as private detective Sam Ransom in the 1985 thriller Jagged Edge.

The veteran actor portrayed mafia men in David Lynch’s 1997 film, “Lost Highway”, and on the HBO series, “The Sopranos“, as well as in parody movies such as “Innocent Blood” and “Armed and risky”.

Tom Hanks, who starred alongside Loggia in 1988’s Big, expressed his grief on Twitter. He played a former circus aerialist and cat burglar who guarded clients in danger of being murdered.

After a failed TV series and a failed marriage in the mid-1960s, he reemerged in two plays for Joseph Papp, Wedding Band with Ruby Dee and In the Boom-Boom Room with Madeleine Kahn. Then, he came back to TV with a part in the TV show, “Mannix“, which lead to more regular work once again. He earned an Emmy nomination in 1989 for Mancuso FBI and a guest appearance on Malcolm in the Middle in 2000.

Loggia made his first film in 1956, and continued to work until the very end of his life. In 1982 he married Audrey O’Brian and before Robert Loggia died this week at age 85 they had been married for 41 years.