Robert Loggia

Robert Loggia (born Salvatore Loggia; January 3, 1930, died December 4, 2015) was an American film and television actor and director, who specialized in character parts.

Early life
Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy. After studying at Wagner College and journalism at the University of Missouri (class of 1951) and serving in the US Army, Loggia began a long career as a supporting player in movies, on stage and television.

Career
Loggia was a radio and TV anchor in Southern Command Network in the Panama Canal Zone. Loggia first came to prominence playing real-life American lawman Elfego Baca in a 1958 series of Walt Disney television shows. He starred as the proverbial cat-burglar-turned-good in a short-lived series called T.H.E. Cat. His many television credits include appearances on Frasier, Overland Trail, Target: The Corruptors!, The Eleventh Hour, Breaking Point, Combat!, Custer, Columbo, Ellery Queen, Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Rockford Files (three times as three different characters), Magnum, P.I., Quincy ME, The Sopranos, Monk, Oliver Stone's miniseries Wild Palms and Little House on the Prairie.

His film roles include An Officer and a Gentleman, Scarface, Prizzi's Honor, Independence Day, Necessary Roughness, Return to Me, Armed and Dangerous, Over The Top and Big (for which he won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor). In 1985, Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of crusty private detective Sam Ransom in the thriller Jagged Edge. He was nominated for an Emmy in 1989 for his portrayal of FBI agent Nick Mancuso in the TV series Mancuso, FBI, a follow up to the previous year's miniseries Favorite Son. Loggia also appeared as a mobster in two different films, he played the voice of the villain, Sykes in Disney's Oliver & Company (1988), and as Mr. Eddy in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997), a film which reunited him with Independence Day co-star Bill Pullman.

In 1998, Loggia appeared in a television commercial lampooning obscure celebrity endorsements. In it, a young boy names Loggia as someone he would trust to recommend Minute Maid orange-tangerine blend; Robert Loggia instantly appears and endorses the drink, to which the boy exclaims, "Whoa, Robert Loggia!" The commercial was later referenced in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle in which Loggia made a guest appearance as "Grandpa Victor" (for which he received his second Emmy nomination); Loggia drinks some orange juice, then spits it out and complains about the pulp. In a similar vein, Loggia has been parodied on an episode of the show Family Guy entitled Peter's Two Dads.

Loggia also played a violent mobster named "Feech La Manna" on a few episodes of the hit series "The Sopranos".

In addition to his role in Oliver & Company (1988), Loggia has had several other voice acting roles. A recurring role on the Adult Swim animated comedy Tom Goes to the Mayor, as crooked cop Ray Machowski in the video game Grand Theft Auto III, as Admiral Petrarch in FreeSpace 2, as the narrator of the Scarface: The World is Yours game adaptation, and in the anime movie A Dog of Flanders (1997).

In August 2009, Loggia appeared in one of Apple's Get a Mac advertisements. The advertisement features Loggia as a personal trainer hired by PC to get him back on top of his game.

On October 26, 2009, it was announced Robert Loggia had joined the cast of TNT's new dramedy Men of a Certain Age. TVGuide.com has learned exclusively that the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actor will guest-star in a January episode as Artie, the father of Ray Romano's Joe. When Artie retires from running his hardware store, he spends all his time at home alone recovering from angioplasty. Joe takes it upon himself to bring back his dad's former spark.

Death
In 2010, Loggia was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died on December 4, 2015, of complications from the disease, at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, at the age of 85.