Ray Liotta, Star Of Goodfellas, Dies At 67
Goodfellas star Ray Liotta died in his sleep at 67 in the Dominican Republic, where he was filming the movie Dangerous Waters.
Ray Liotta has died, aged 67.
Liotta, best known for his portrayal of real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's 1990 gangster pic Goodfellas, passed away in his sleep. The actor was in the Dominican Republic at the at time of his death shooting the movie Dangerous Waters, his rep told The Hollywood Reporter.
Born in Newark, New Jersey on December 18, 1954, Liotta was adopted at six months old after being abandoned at an orphanage after his birth. He studied acting at the University of Miami and performed in such musicals as Cabaret, Sound of Music and Oklahoma before graduating in 1978. When he relocated to New York City, he landed his first gig on the soap opera Another World. He then moved to Los Angeles to break into the movies; his first role was in 1983's Lonely Lady.
His first major feature role was in 1986's Something Wild, Jonathan Demme's action-comedy which he starred alongside Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels. His other credits include Field of Dreams, Cop Land, Hannibal, Blow, Observe and Report and The Place Beyond the Pines.
More recently, he appeared in Steven Soderbergh's No Sudden Move and The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel feature to HBO's landmark series The Sopranos, which he famously turned down. "I didn't want to do another mafia thing, and I was shooting Hannibal," he explained. "It just didn't feel right at the time."
According to Variety, Liotta's upcoming film slate include Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear; a Charlie Day comedy formerly known as El Tonto; Dangerous Waters and The Substance. On TV, he co-starred in the third and final season of Amazon's Hanna and will appear alongside Taron Edgerton and Paul Walter Hauser on Apple TV+'s true-crime series Black Bird, due July 8.
Liotta leaves behind his daughter actress Karsen Liotta from his marriage to Michelle Grace and his fiance Jacy Nittolo, who was staying with him in the Caribbean.
Responding to his passing, Scorsese, said in a statement (per Variety), “I’m absolutely shocked and devastated by the sudden, unexpected death of Ray Liotta. He was so uniquely gifted, so adventurous, so courageous as an actor. Playing Henry Hill in Good Fellas was a tall order, because the character had so many different facets, so many complicated layers, and Ray was in almost every scene of a long, tough shoot. He absolutely amazed me, and I’ll always be proud of the work we did together on that picture. My heart goes out to his loved ones, and it aches for his loss, way too early.”
Others who paid tribute to Liotta include Lorraine Bracco, who played his Goodfellas wife, Karen Hill. “I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray," she tweeted. "I can be anywhere in the world people will come up tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta.”
Jennifer Lopez, who worked with Liotta on the 2016-2018 NBC crime series, Shades of Blue, shared, “Ray was my partner in crime on Shades of Blue … the first thing that comes to mind is he so was kind to my children. Ray was the epitome of a tough guy who was all mushy on the inside … I guess that’s what made him such a compelling actor to watch. The original Goodfella.”