Robert Loggia, Oscar-Nominated Actor, Dead at 85

Loggia dead square

Versatile Oscar-nominated actor Robert Loggia, whose career ranged from Disney TV series to mobster movies, and who memorably played a duet on a giant piano keyboard with Tom Hanks in “Big,” died today in Los Angeles at age 85.

He had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for five years.

Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for playing a private eye in 1986’s “Jagged Edge.” He was also nominated for an Emmy in 1989 for playing FBI agent Nick Mancuso in “Mancuso FBI,” and in 2000 for a guest-starring role on “Malcolm in the Middle.”

Fans will probably also remember him as mobster Feech La Manna on “The Sopranos.”

He also appeared in the violent film masterpiece “Scarface.”

Among the other films he appeared in were “Prizzi’s Honor,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Independence Day,” “Problem Child,” “Revenge of the Pink Panther,” “Over The Top,” “Necessary Roughness” and “Return to Me.”

Loggia debuted on the small screen playing the title character in the Walt Disney serial "The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" in 1958. He went on to appear in episodes of “The Untouchables,” “Columbo,” “Gunsmoke,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” “The Big Valley,” “Rawhide,” “Little House on the Prairie,” "The Rockford Files," “Starsky and Hutch,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Magnum, P.I.,” “Kojak,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “The Bionic Woman,” “Frasier” and “Monk.”

He is survived by his widow, Audrey, and children Tracy, John, Kristina and Cynthia.