Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 26, 1993 TAG: 9306260265
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACKIE HYMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
It might very well be Robert Loggia.
"What happens to me all the time is, people say, `I know you from somewhere,' " says Loggia, who has been featured in strong supporting roles in films since the early 1950s.
"When I tell them what I've done, they say, `That's my favorite movie, I saw it 10 times. You played that?' To me, that's a triumph, that they will have seen virtually everything I've ever done, but they can't put them together."
Loggia's latest role is a politician trapped with a terrorist in the science-fiction thriller "Lifepod," premiering Monday at 8 p.m. on the Fox network (WJPR-Channel 21/27).
Directed by and co-starring Ron Silver, the movie was inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock classic "Lifeboat."
Set in the year 2168, the story concerns nine people who flee a space liner moments before it explodes. Trapped in the escape craft, they find evidence that one of them deliberately caused the explosion.
Shooting the film, which took 25 days, proved physically challenging, Loggia said, because of "the confinement aspect, the authenticity of the set, which was like a lifeboat but totally enclosed."
"It was a very hazardous set, whether it was hitting your head or twisting your ankle," he said. "There was heat and cold and we had to play thirst."
"They used smoke, too, to create a kind of murky, sweating metal effect," Loggia said. "But you know actors - they're resilient. The show must go on, in spite of the lung cancer."
He was attracted to the project by his admiration for Silver, he said, and by "the concept of a lifepod, about a space liner blowing up and people adrift in space. I found it quite fascinating."
No, he's not a science fiction fan, Loggia said, "I'm a catastrophe fan. The sinking of the Lusitania, the Johnstown flood, Mount St. Helens blowing up - these cataclysmic events fascinate me. . . . I'm sorry I missed [performing in] `Earthquake.' "
He hasn't missed much else.
Loggia played a Cuban drug dealer in "Scarface," an Irish cop in "Jagged Edge" (for which he received a best-supporting actor Oscar nomination), a Sephardic Jew in "Triumph of the Spirit," and Richard Gere's alcoholic, ex-Navy father in "An Officer and a Gentleman." He also was the man who danced on the piano keys with Tom Hanks in "Big," and appeared in "Prizzi's Honor."
On television, he appeared in "Emerald Point N.A.S." and received an Emmy nomination for the series "Mancuso F.B.I."
A native of New York City's Little Italy, Loggia began his acting career in 1951 with a stint in summer stock. After serving in Panama during the Korean War, he resumed acting in 1953 when a friend who had become an agent sent him to an audition.
From then on, Loggia said, "I never did anything else other than act. . . . It's almost 40 years now as an actor-survivor."
There was one self-imposed gap, from 1968 to 1973, which he spent skiing and traveling. "I had a sort of midlife crisis," Loggia said. "I was not happily married and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I had to find myself. It was a quest."
He ended his hiatus by performing off-Broadway, and gradually film roles began coming his way again.
"I've had a great second half that started with `An Officer and a Gentleman' in 1980," he said.
Upcoming projects include an NBC movie with Scott Bakula, "Mercy Mission," which Loggia recently filmed in Australia. He plays a commercial airline pilot who finds a lost cropduster pilot and guides him to a safe landing.
He also shot a feature film in New Zealand, "Taking Liberties," with Rod Steiger, Tony Goldwyn and Kerry Fox. And you can see him in the vampire comedy-thriller "Innocent Blood," newly released on video.
If he had his life to do over, would Loggia do anything differently?
"Probably everything," he said. "I'm always kind of surprised when people say, `If I had it to do over again, I'd do it the same way.' I would sure have loved to know some of the turns in life before I approached them, not knowing how precipitous and steep they were."
by CNB