Tough-Guy Actor Robert Loggia Dies at 85

He famously danced with Tom Hanks in Big and was Oscar nominated for Jagged Edge
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 4, 2015 5:16 PM CST
Tough-Guy Actor Robert Loggia Dies at 85
In this handout photo provided by 20th Century Fox, Robert Loggia, left and Tom Hanks star in the 1988 comedy "Big."   (AP Photo/20th Century Fox)

Robert Loggia, who played drug lords and mobsters and danced with Tom Hanks in Big, has died, his wife Aubrey Loggia says. Aubrey Loggia said Loggia died Friday at his home in Los Angeles after a five-year battle with Alzheimer's. He was 85. Loggia's rugged looks and voice suited his many character roles as gangsters or other shady characters. He was a Miami drug lord in Scarface and a Sicilian mobster in Prizzi's Honor. He earned an Oscar nomination for the 1985 legal thriller Jagged Edge. But perhaps his most memorable role was a comic turn as the toy company boss in Big. In a famous scene, he and Hanks, as a boy in a man's body, dance on a giant toy keyboard in joyful duets of Chopsticks and Heart and Soul. (More obituary stories.)

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