Robert Loggia, veteran character actor whose career spanned 6 decades and who received an Oscar nomination in 1986 for his role in Jagged Edge died Friday in Los Angeles, his family have confirmed. He was 85 and had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for five years. “His poor body gave up”, his wife off 33 years, Aubrey Loggia, told Fox News.
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“He loved being an actor”, his widow said in an interview with Variety.
Loggia’s rugged looks and voice suited his many character roles as gangsters or other shady characters. He also played Feech La Manna on The Sopranos.
Among Loggia’s early claims to fame, an Academy Award Nominated turn in “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985) and an Emmy Nomination for detective series “Mancuso, F.B.I”.
He then turned on the charm three years later in the Penny Marshall’s film, “Big”, as the owner of MacMillan Toy Company.
Native of Staten Island, Loggia was born to Italian immigrants and started his carrier by performing plays in NY.
First inclined toward newspaper work, he studied journalism at the University of Missouri, but was drawn to acting and returned to NY to study at the Actors Studio.
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The late actor also ventured into movies and delivered some memorable performances in movies like “Revenge Of Pink Panther“, “Over The Top”, “Independence Day”, “Necessary Roughness” and “Armed And Dangerous”.
