NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Actor Robert Loggia dies at age 85

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.”

Springsteen plans 9-week tour in 2016

NEW YORK

Bruce Springsteen will kick off a nine-week U.S. tour next year.

On Friday the 66-year-old icon announced The River Tour with the E Street Band, which starts Jan. 16 in Pittsburgh. Springsteen will play 24 dates and wrap the tour March 17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Tickets go on sale Friday. The tour also will visit Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta and New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Associated Press