When it comes to hard working actors in Hollywood, Robert Loggia is up there with the best of them, and it was with great sadness that I learned the legendary actor has passed away at the age of 85 due to complications from Alzheimers disease. The name might ring the finest of bells with some of you (especially with being the butt of one of the better jokes on Family Guy), but his distinctive voice and snarl will be known to just about everyone, thanks to his massive, and incredibly eclectic body of work. His most famous role has to be Frank Lopez, Tony Montana’s boss in Scarface, but with two hundred and twenty credits on IMDB, it’s safe to say you’ve seen the man more often than you think.
Personally, Loggia was always with me growing up, with me first getting to know the great man as the kindly Mr. McMillan in Big, not knowing I’d had already known him, thanks to that voice, as the villainous Sykes in Disney’s Oliver and Company (both released in 1988). I’d meet him again a few years later, in an Oscar nominated turn, when a VHS of Jagged Edge began being played in our house on heavy rotation (I’ve seen that movie more times than I’d care to acknowledge). Then he turned up again in my favourite Summer movie of all time, Independence Day, as General William Grey bellowing the line, “Tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down!!”.
As I grew up and fully committed to discovering everything I could about the world of film, I started to stumble back and forth through the filmography of the man I sometimes mistook for Jimmy Caan (and vice versa) which included the likes of I Love Trouble, Psycho 2, Prizzi’s Honor, The Curse of the Pink Panther, and Lost Highway. He was always at the top of his game playing the villain, which is why his jump to t.v with The Sopranos’s fifth season as the wonderfully named Feech La Manna filled me with such joy. The man was a wonderful actor whose performance seared its way onto your memory no matter how small it was. You will be missed Sir.
RIP
Personally, Loggia was always with me growing up, with me first getting to know the great man as the kindly Mr. McMillan in Big, not knowing I’d had already known him, thanks to that voice, as the villainous Sykes in Disney’s Oliver and Company (both released in 1988). I’d meet him again a few years later, in an Oscar nominated turn, when a VHS of Jagged Edge began being played in our house on heavy rotation (I’ve seen that movie more times than I’d care to acknowledge). Then he turned up again in my favourite Summer movie of all time, Independence Day, as General William Grey bellowing the line, “Tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down!!”.
As I grew up and fully committed to discovering everything I could about the world of film, I started to stumble back and forth through the filmography of the man I sometimes mistook for Jimmy Caan (and vice versa) which included the likes of I Love Trouble, Psycho 2, Prizzi’s Honor, The Curse of the Pink Panther, and Lost Highway. He was always at the top of his game playing the villain, which is why his jump to t.v with The Sopranos’s fifth season as the wonderfully named Feech La Manna filled me with such joy. The man was a wonderful actor whose performance seared its way onto your memory no matter how small it was. You will be missed Sir.
RIP