Robert Loggia – the actor who is perhaps best known for his role as drug kingpin Frank Lopez in Scarface – has passed away at the age of 85.
According to Variety, Loggia passed away at his home in Los Angeles just hours ago. His wife of 33 years, Cynthia Loggia, reports that he had been battling Alzheimer’s disease.
Loggia appeared in over 60 films and television shows over the course of his nearly six-decade career in Hollywood.
In addition to his role in Scarface, he’s best known to modern audiences for his work on such films and as An Officer and a Gentleman, Big, and Independence Day.
Loggia was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for his work in Jagged Edge.
Though primarily a star of the big screen, Loggia also played memorable roles on The Sporanos and Malcolm in the Middle, for which he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.
While he made a career of playing hardboiled gangsters and grizzled cops, friends and family say Loggia was a kind and compassionate man who always made time for his fans and loved to laugh at himself.
Fans of the Fox sitcom Family Guy will likely recall the oft-quoted scene in which Loggia lampoons his celebrity status by slowly spelling out his name to an airport check-in clerk. (“‘R,’ as in ‘Robert Loggia, ‘O,’ as in ‘Oh my god, it’s Robert Loggia!"”)
The consummate “actor’s actor,” Loggia nurtured the career of many and up-and-comer, and colleagues and proteges alike are currently paying tribute to the late legend on social media.
Loggia is survived by his wife and four children.
