Robert Loggia Revelations.

This past fall, I went to a screening of Scarface at my local theater where they showed featurettes from the recently-released BluRay.  It has some useless interviews with unrelated ‘celebrities’ who are Scarface fans, but if you push past those, it also has some fascinating Pacino outtakes (and by the way, I found out the hard way that if you type “Pacino outtakes” quickly into an iPhone, auto-correct translates in into “puttanesca.”) 

Most interestingly, however, the Blu-Ray features a shocking revelation from Scarface cast member Robert Loggia, who plays Frank Lopez, Tony Montana’s mentor-turned-adversary.  Loggia talks about drug use on the set of the neo-classic, reporting that one of the primary cast members allegedly was “getting high on [his or her] own supply.” He actually uses a gender-specific pronoun which makes the allegation fairly obvious, but I’m too afraid of litigation to repeat it.  

Robert Loggia has no such fear of litigation.  This is one of very many reasons why he is the most underrated of cinematic badasses.

Robert Loggia has had a film and television career lasting more than fifty years.  He started out as a handsome leading-man type, but for the last three decades or so, he has looked basically the way he looks now, which is like a stone carving of every guy you’ve never wanted to fuck with.  He’s got one of the great tough-guy voices ever, which is why he’s so often cast as authority figures or crimelords.  You may think you don’t know Robert Loggia, but believe me, you do.

Obviously I adore Robert Loggia.  Badassed old guys and underdogs represent most of my favorite people, and who’s more badass yet less name-checked than Robert Loggia?  He’s an Italian guy from Staten Island who kicks ass in every movie I’ve seen him in, of course I’m a fan.  I even made Robert Loggia a recurring character in my weekly comic strip in college.  [I’ll try to dig those up and insert them here.]  I think the guy is overdue for an appreciation, which is a weird thing to think about someone who was nominated for an Academy Award, but I think it.  His role on the later seasons of The Sopranos as the mythic Feech LaManna was a fitting tribute, but let’s see some more of them.  

I’m not famous enough to successfully launch a Twitter hashtag, but I had some fun with #RobertLoggiaRevelations and maybe you will too.

                                                        Robert Loggia Revelations

(excerpted from Loggia! A Life, by Robert Loggia with ghost-writing by J.M. Abrams)

• Page 137:  Of all the Italians in the Scarface cast playing Cubans — Al Pacino, F. Murray Abraham, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, etc. — I was the most. 

• Page 149:  Scarface is the first and only time I shed a teardrop on film. You’re gonna have an easier time finding water on Mars than anywhere on my face.

• Page 151:  My mustache from Scarface has since been used to clothe a hairless cat.  I care about animals.

• Page 145:  As the only person on the Scarface set licensed to pilot a Zeppelin, that was me driving the ‘World Is Yours’ blimp.

 

 

• Page 205:  On the set of Over The Top, I taught that Stallone kid everything he knows about arm-wrestling. 

 

• Page 208:  In addition to serving as arm-wrestling consultant, I also handled all the scenes with trucks in Over The Top. I used to juggle them as a boy.

 

 

• Page 415:  On the set of I Love Trouble, I taught that Nick Nolte kid everything he knows about growling. 

• Page 626:  I also served as his stylist for this:

 

• Page 501:  On the set of Armed & Dangerous, I was both.  

 

• Page 502: Ask Meg Ryan.

 

 

• Page 3:  To maintain this voice, I start every morning with a meal of flapjacks, bacon, gravel, and the fear of lesser men.

 

• Page 360:  The giant piano I danced on with Tom Hanks in Big was a trophy I brought back after defeating the mighty Cyclops.  Little-known fact of mythology:  The Cyclops used to tickle the ivories before I blinded him with a red hot poker. 

 

• Page 599:  Lost Highway was originally a straightforward, linear, completely comprehensible movie until, in a fit of anger, I punched it senseless.

 

• Page 54:  Many of the movie titles on my IMDb page were inspired by words that have been used to describe me in the past — Cold Blooded, Relentless, S.O.B., and Dream Breakers…

   

• Page 55:  …But those lousy screenwriters don’t know the real me.  Before my voice changed, I was a ballet dancer.  Little-known fact:  I inspired the movie (and musical) Billy Elliot. 
  

  "I'm a dancer!"

   

• Page 10:  I like to save my talent for violence for the big screen.  But if you’re tempted to refer to me as “R-Lo”, that can change in a New York instant.

 

• Page 93:  Women?  That’s for goddamn sure.

 

• Page 522:  Least believable part of Independence Day? They didn’t unleash me on those alien pansies in the first five minutes.  But then, of course, there’d be no movie.

 

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