Whenever you saw Robert Loggia in a movie or a TV show, you knew he was going to be a tough guy.

He played gangsters in The Sopranos, The Don’s Analyst, Sicilian Vampire, Innocent Blood, Prizzi’s Honor, Armed and Dangerous, and Speedtrap.  In Scarface, he played Frank Lopez and controlled the Miami drug scene until he was overthrown by Al Pacino’s Tony Montana.  In David Lynch’s Lost Highway, he played Mr. Eddy and nearly killed a man over tailgating.  (Before casting him in Lost Highway, Lynch offered Loggia the role of Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.  When Loggia turned the role down, Lynch offered it to Dennis Hopper.  If Loggia had accepted the role, the 90s would have been a very different time as far as movies are concerned.)  Loggia was nominated for an Oscar for playing a tough P.I. in Jagged Edge.  In Independence Day, he was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  If the aliens knew he was waiting for them, they probably would have stayed home.

Robert Loggia even played himself in one of the best commercials of the 1990s.

Robert Loggia’s acting career began in 1956, when he appeared alongside Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in Somebody Up There Likes Me.  Over the years, he played everyone from Joseph in The Greatest Story Ever Told to Norman Bates’s psychologist in Psycho II.  But, for many of us, he will always be best remembered as Mr. MacMillan in Big, the toy company owner who rediscovers his inner child by dancing on a keyboard with Tom Hanks.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Loggia.  Thank you for the memories.