Born Salvatore Loggia, he probably had to change it to Robert because his real name was “too ethnic” for Whitebread America in the Fifties, this guy went on to be royalty in the bit parts. Honestly, can you name anything in which he was the star? I can’t without help from imdb.com. Still he was a force to be reckoned with when on the “stage.”
Being Italian he obviously got typecast as mobsters, he was in The Sopranos and the Eighties version of Scarface (no shock there). A personal favorite was the crime boss Sallie “The Shark” Macelli who gets turned into a vampire by accident in Innocent Blood. He often did a ton of TV and like all programs in the Seventies, he made multiple appearances as different characters: Charlie’s Angels, SWAT, The Rockford Files and The Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman. Here he often broke out of the stereotypes. In Independence Day I think he was the general the president Bill Pullman could trust. The other memorable guest appearance he had I loved was the Russian-born grandfather in Malcolm in the Middle who foolishly let the psycho brother Reese handle an old Soviet-style WWII grenade they set off in the fridge. I guess he was too busy to return for they had his character die and “live” on through his second, secret family in Canada.
Farewell Robert. You left behind a legacy of great characters, roles, voices and pride for American Italians!