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Robert Loggia

Robert LoggiaBorn: 3-Jan-1930
Birthplace: New York City
Died: 4-Dec-2015
Location of death: Los Angeles, CA
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The Jagged Edge

Military service: US Army (1951-53, news reporter, Caribbean Forces Network, Panama)

Robert Loggia was a character actor, best known for playing crooks, thugs, and gravelly-voiced cops. He played mobsters in Scarface, Prizzi's Honor, and The Sopranos. His talent for such "tough guy" roles was undeniable, and not entirely acting. Loggia said he beat up his gym teacher in high school.

As a young man he pursued a degree in journalism, but when he stepped on stage in a college production of The Taming of the Shrew, he knew he would never be a reporter. He studied at the Actors' Studio in New York, appeared in numerous stage productions there, and had a tiny role in his first movie, Somebody Up There Likes Me, in 1956. He had a much bigger part in his second film, the shocking union drama The Garment Jungle with Lee J. Cobb. He played Joseph -- stepfather of Christ -- in The Greatest Story Ever Told, with Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary.

In a 1958 TV series, he starred in The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, as a lawyer and sheriff in a Disneyfied version of the old west. 16-year-old Annette Funicello had a guest role in a few episodes, and four years later, when Funicello was red hot, Disney re-edited those episodes into the feature film, Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law. His stardom peaked with a 1966 TV action series, with Loggia as the mega-cool acrobat, thief, and bodyguard Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, or T.H.E. Cat for short. The show was popular with children and teenagers, but the science of measuring demographics had not yet been perfected, so the only numbers the network saw were the total ratings, and those numbers were small so T.H.E. Cat was cancelled after just one season. Loggia worked on a few daytime soap operas, and through the rest of the 1960s and '70s he continued taking character roles in film and television.

In the classic An Officer and a Gentleman, he played Richard Gere's alcoholic father, and he appeared in several Pink Panther films. It was Jagged Edge with Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges that gave Loggia's career a second start. Playing a delightfully foul-mouthed private investigator, Loggia got his only nomination for an Oscar. In Big, Loggia played the owner of the toy company where Tom Hanks worked, and they danced together on a giant piano keyboard. In Independence Day he played the General who delivered the bad news, "We could be looking at the worldwide destruction of every major city in the next 36 hours." On TV, he played a wacky Senator on Wild Palms, and did commercials for orange juice.

He died in 2015.

Father: Benjamin Loggia (shoemaker)
Mother: Elena Blandino (homemaker)
Wife: Marjorie Sloan (m. 1954, div., two daughters, one son)
Daughter: Tracey Loggia (real estate agent)
Son: John Loggia (production designer)
Daughter: Kristina Loggia (m. James Le Gros, actor)
Wife: Audrey O'Brien (m. 27-Dec-1982 until his death, two daughters)
Daughter: Cynthia Marlette Loggia (reporter, Variety, stepdaughter)
Daughter: Marjorie Loggia

    University: Wagner College
    University: BA Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia (1951)
    Conservatory: The Actors Studio

    Endorsement of Apple 2009
    Italian Ancestry
    Risk Factors: Alzheimer's

    TELEVISION
    The Secret Storm Frank Carver (1972)
    Emerald Point N.A.S. Admiral Yuri Bukharin (1983-84)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Independence Day: Resurgence (20-Jun-2016)
    No Deposit (24-Apr-2015)
    Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (20-Jan-2012)
    The Life Zone (10-Jun-2011)
    Harvest (19-Mar-2010)
    Shrink (5-Feb-2009) · Dr. Robert Carter
    The Least of These (Oct-2008) · Fr. William Jennings
    Wild Seven (26-Jun-2006) · Mackey Willis
    Rain (20-Apr-2006)
    Funny Money (9-Mar-2006)
    The Deal (13-May-2005) · Jared Tolson
    The Shipment (5-Dec-2001) · Frank
    Dodson's Journey (10-Jan-2001)
    Return to Me (7-Apr-2000) · Angelo Pardipillo
    American Virgin (11-Feb-2000)
    Bonanno: A Godfather's Story (25-Jul-1999)
    Joan of Arc (16-May-1999)
    The Suburbans (25-Jan-1999)
    Hard Time (13-Dec-1998)
    Holy Man (9-Oct-1998)
    The Proposition (27-Mar-1998) · Hannibal Thurman
    Wide Awake (20-Mar-1998) · Grandpa Beal
    Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way (17-Oct-1997)
    The Don's Analyst (6-Sep-1997)
    Lost Highway (21-Feb-1997)
    Smilla's Sense of Snow (13-Feb-1997) · Moritz
    Flypaper (1997)
    Pandora's Clock (10-Nov-1996)
    Mistrial (2-Nov-1996)
    Independence Day (2-Jul-1996) · Gen. William Grey
    Man with a Gun (9-Oct-1995)
    Coldblooded (15-Sep-1995) · Gordon
    I Love Trouble (29-Jun-1994)
    Bad Girls (22-Apr-1994) · Frank Jarrett
    Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 (13-Dec-1993)
    Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7 (23-Nov-1993)
    Lifepod (28-Jun-1993)
    Wild Palms (16-May-1993)
    Innocent Blood (25-Sep-1992)
    Afterburn (30-May-1992)
    Gladiator (6-Mar-1992)
    Necessary Roughness (27-Sep-1991) · Coach Rig
    The Marrying Man (5-Apr-1991)
    Opportunity Knocks (30-Mar-1990) · Milt
    Triumph of the Spirit (8-Dec-1989)
    Relentless (30-Aug-1989)
    Oliver & Company (18-Nov-1988) [VOICE]
    Big (3-Jun-1988) · MacMillan
    Echoes In The Darkness (1-Nov-1987)
    Gaby: A True Story (14-Sep-1987) · Michel
    The Believers (10-Jun-1987) · Lt. Sean McTaggert
    Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (16-May-1987)
    Hot Pursuit (8-May-1987)
    Over the Top (13-Feb-1987) · Jason Cutler
    That's Life! (10-Sep-1986)
    Armed and Dangerous (15-Aug-1986)
    Jagged Edge (5-Sep-1985) · Sam Ransom
    Prizzi's Honor (13-Jun-1985)
    Scarface (9-Dec-1983) · Frank Lopez
    Curse of the Pink Panther (13-Aug-1983) · Bruno
    Psycho II (3-Jun-1983) · Dr. Raymond
    Trail of the Pink Panther (17-Dec-1982) · Bruno
    An Officer and a Gentleman (28-Jul-1982) · Byron Mayo
    A Woman Called Golda (26-Apr-1982)
    S. O. B. (1-Jul-1981)
    The Ninth Configuration (8-Aug-1980)
    Casino (1-Aug-1980)
    Flatfoot on the Nile (1979)
    Revenge of the Pink Panther (14-Jul-1978) · Marchione
    First Love (Nov-1977) · John March
    Raid on Entebbe (9-Jan-1977)
    Speedtrap (1977)
    Turn the Other Cheek (1974) · Marches Gonzaga
    Che! (29-May-1969)
    The Three Sisters (1966)
    The Greatest Story Ever Told (15-Feb-1965) · Joseph
    Cattle King (31-Jul-1963) · Johnny Quatro
    The Lost Missile (Dec-1958) · Dr. David Loring
    Cop Hater (1-Oct-1958) · Det. Carelli
    The Garment Jungle (25-Apr-1957) · Tulio Renata


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