Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta | |
|---|---|
 Liotta in September 2014 | |
| Born | Raymond Allen Liotta December 18, 1954 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | May 26, 2022 (aged 67) |
| Cause of death | Heart failure and pulmonary edema |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1978–2022 |
| Spouse |
Michelle Grace
(m. 1997; div. 2004) |
| Partner | Jacy Nittolo (2020–2022) |
| Children | 1 |
Raymond Allen Liotta (December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor and movie producer. He was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He was adopted when he was six months old. His movie roles include: Ray Sinclair in Something Wild, Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, Henry Hill in Goodfellas, Officer Pete Davis in Unlawful Entry and Detective Lieutenant Henry Oak in Narc. He won an Emmy Award for his role in ER. He is best known for playing villains and tough guys. He has also played sympathetic characters.
Career
[change | change source]One of Liotta's earliest roles was as Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World. He appeared on the show from 1978 to 1981. In his first movie his character sexually assaulted Pia Zadora's character with a garden hose in the cult classic The Lonely Lady. In 1987, he earned his first Golden Globe nomination[1] for Something Wild. In 1989, he costarred, along with Kevin Costner, in the fantasy/drama movie, Field of Dreams. Liotta was Shoeless Joe Jackson, the ghost of the famed baseball player. In 1990, Liotta was real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's movie Goodfellas. In 1992, he costarred, along with Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe, in the thriller Unlawful Entry as a psychopathic cop. He also had a leading role in Sci-Fi/Action movie No Escape. Liotta earned more praise for James Mangold's movie Cop Land, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. In 1998, he received praise the crime movie Phoenix.
In addition to his movie roles, Liotta was singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack. He received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for this role. He provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards nomination for Best Supporting Male for the movie Narc. He then reunited with director James Mangold in 2003 alongside John Cusack and Alfred Molina in the dark horror-thriller Identity. He also narrated Inside the Mafia for the National Geographic Channel in 2005. He appeared with John Travolta in the movie Wild Hogs and with Johnny Depp in the 2001 movie Blow.
In 2011, he starred in The Son of No One, opposite Channing Tatum and Al Pacino.[2] Liotta's recent movies include Date Night with Steve Carell, Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron, the independent drama Snowmen, and The River Sorrow, which stars Liotta as a detective alongside Christian Slater and Ving Rhames.
Personal life
[change | change source]Liotta married actress Michelle Grace in February 1997. Their daughter, Karsen, was born in December 1998. The couple divorced in 2004. Liotta lived in Pacific Palisades, California.
Liotta died on May 26, 2022 while filming a movie in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at the age of 67.[3] The cause of death was heart failure and pulmonary edema.[4]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "HFPA – Awards Search". 1.hfpa.org. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
- ↑ "Observe and Report". Observeandreport.com. Archived from the original on June 3, 2009. Retrieved July 7, 2009.
- ↑ ‘Goodfellas’ Star Ray Liotta Dies at 67
- ↑ Ray Liotta's Cause of Death Revealed
Other websites
[change | change source]- Ray Liotta on IMDb