Veteran character player Robert Loggia anticipated a career in journalism but, after college and a stint in the military, turned his attention to performing and never looked back. Raised in Manhattan's Little Italy, the rugged, gravelly-voiced actor has frequently drawn from his upbringing and Sicilian background for the numerous roles in gangster films so prominent on his resume, but his swarthy looks have also enabled him to inhabit other ethnicities, ranging from Spanish (crime boss Frankie Lopez in "Scarface" 1983), Egyptian (Anwar Sadat in the 1982 syndicated miniseries "A Woman Called Golda") and Russian (KGB spy Yuri Bukharin in the CBS series "Emerald Point. N.A.S." 1983-84). A life member of New York's Actors Studio since 1955, Loggia divided his early career between the stage, (Off-Broadway in "The Man with the Golden Arm" in 1955), movies (1956's "Somebody Up There Likes Me" as gangster Frankie Peppo trying to get boxer Rocky Graziano, played by Paul Newman, to throw a fight), and television (on such "Golden Age" live broadcasts as "Studio One" and "Playhouse 90"). It was a pattern he continued for some two decades.
Loggia brought a fiery conviction to his role as union zealot Tulio Renata in "The Garment Jungle" (1957) before acquitting himself admirably in his first starring turn as an atomic scientist in "The Lost Missile" (1958), racing against time to destroy an alien rocket before it reaches NYC. He was back on the boards Off-Broadway in Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" (1960) and made his Broadway (1963) and London (1964) debuts in an Actors Studio staging of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" (which was filmed and released in 1964). Throughout the remainder of the 60s and into the 70s, though, for the most part he earned his bread and butter as a prolific guest star on TV series like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Ben Casey", "Starsky and Hutch" and "Charlie's Angels", among many, many others. Loggia also starred as a burglar-turned-bodyguard in the NBC series "T.H.E. Cat" (1966-67). One of his rare feature roles in the 60s, George Stevens' religious epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), cast him as Joseph.
As the 70s dawned, Loggia had returned to his native NYC and found work on the CBS daytime serials "The Secret Storm" (1972) and "Search for Tomorrow" (1973) before he once again graced the Broadway stage in David Rabe's "In the Boom Boom Room". With a couple of years, however, the actor was back on the West Coast lending his considerable presence to piffle like the NBC miniseries "Arthur Hailey's 'The Money Changers'" (1976) and inaugurating a five-picture collaboration with director Blake Edwards that began with "Revenge of the Pink Panther" (1978).
Having turned 50, Loggia began exploring other option, moving behind the camera to helm a 1980 episode of NBC's "Quincy, M.E." (which earned him membership in the Directors Guild of America). He went on to direct the pilot for CBS' "Magnum, P.I" that same year and perhaps would have been content to continue on that course had he not been cast in as Richard Gere's bullying, alcoholic father in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982). A new generation of filmmakers became aware of his gifts. He re-invigorated career received an additional shot when he received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a hard-nosed two-bit detective aiding lawyer Glenn Close in her defense of accused killer Jeff Bridges in "Jagged Edge" (1985). That same year. he graced the John Huston-directed black comedy "Prizzi's Honor" as one of the aging leaders of the "family". After displaying the gentle side of his nature as the caring father of a young woman with cerebral palsy in "Gaby--A True Story" (1987), he was well-cast as defense attorney William Kuntzler in "Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8" (HBO, 1987). Loggia delighted audiences in what is arguably his most memorable feature role, the toymaker in "Big" (1988) who dances on a giant keyboard with Tom Hanks to the tune of "Heart and Soul". Although none of his series found an audience, he took his best shot as "Nick Mancuso, F.B.I." (NBC, 1989-90), earning his only Emmy nomination for the role he had originally created in the 1988 NBC miniseries "Favorite Son".
Maturing into a sort of gray eminence on screen, Loggia played Hector Elizondo's snarling assistant football coach in the "Major League"-clone "Necessary Roughness" (1991) before joining director John Landis for the mobster-vampire spoof "Innocent Blood" (1992, as gang boss Sal the Shark). He turned up as a crazed Senator in ABC's futuristic miniseries "Wild Palms" (1993) and then had his pinky ring firmly in place for his roles as Carlo Gambino ("Between Love and Honor", CBS 1995), Don Vito Leoni ("The Don's Analyst", TMC 1997) and Don Ciccio ("Bonanno: A Godfather's Story", Showtime 1998). In the summer blockbuster "Independence Day" (1996), Loggia portrayed a gung-ho general fighting invading aliens in the sci-fi blockbuster "Independence Day" (1996). His gangster in David Lynch's "Lost Highway" (1997) chewed the scenery amidst mostly subdued performances, whereas M. Night Shyamalan's "Wide Awake" (1998) cast him at the other end of the acting spectrum as the amiable Grandpa Beal while his crusty Frank Torre in "Joe Torre: Curveballs along the Way" (Showtime, 1997) was somewhere in between. He helped his Irish brother-in-law (Carroll O'Connor) run O'Reilly's (an Italian restaurant) in Bonnie Hunt's Chicago-set "Return to Me" and co-starred with Kim Basinger and Eva Marie Saint in Hugh Hudson's "I Dream of Africa" (both 2000). The following year, he picked up an Emmy nomination for his guest turn as the exacting father of matriarch Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) on the hit Fox sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle". After that character was killed off, he landed a regular role on the short-lived TV courtroom drama "Queens Supreme" (2003) before landing the plum part on "The Sopranos" in 2004 as the firey ex-con Feech La Manna, whose emergence from prison and subsequent push to get back on top in the mob becomes a threat to Tony Soprano's organization.