Raymond Allen Liotta ( lee-OH-tə, Italian: [liˈɔtta]; December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor. He first gained attention for his role in the film Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. He was best known for his portrayals of Shoeless Joe Jackson in the film Field of Dreams (1989) and Henry Hill in the film Goodfellas (1990). Liotta appeared in numerous other films, including Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal, Heartbreakers (both 2001), John Q., Narc (both 2002), Identity (2003), Wild Hogs (2007), Killing Them Softly, The Place Beyond the Pines (both 2012), and Marriage Story (2019). He was also known for providing the voice for Tommy Vercetti, the playable protagonist in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).
Liotta won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role in the television series ER in 2005. He starred as Frank Sinatra in the television film The Rat Pack (1998) and Lorca in the miniseries Texas Rising (2015), both of which earned him Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and starred in the series Shades of Blue (2016–2018) and Black Bird (2022). The latter garnered him a posthumous Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his role as Big Jim Keene at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.
After his death in 2022, Liotta was posthumously recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 24, 2023. His films that were released posthumously include Cocaine Bear, Fool's Paradise, Dangerous Waters (all 2023), and 1992 (2024).
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Early life and education
Liotta was born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 18, 1954. After being abandoned at an orphanage, he was adopted at the age of six months by township clerk Mary (née Edgar) and auto parts store owner Alfred Liotta. His adoptive parents were Scottish and Italian Americans. Alfred was a personnel director and president of a local Democratic Party club. Each of his adoptive parents ran unsuccessfully for local political office; he recalled attending parades to hand out flyers for his father's run.
Liotta had a sister, Linda, who was also adopted. He said that he knew that he was adopted as a young child, and presented a show-and-tell report. In the 2000s, he used a private detective to locate his biological mother Ruth, who told him he was of Scottish descent. He had one biological sister, one biological half-brother also named Ray, and five biological half-sisters.
His family was Roman Catholic, although not especially religious. They attended church and he received first communion and was confirmed, but the family did not pray much. He occasionally used prayer in his daily life, telling an interviewer, "... if I'm in a fix, I'll pray ... if I'm feeling uncomfortable about something, I'll say "Our Fathers" and "Hail Marys" to this day."
Liotta grew up in Union, New Jersey,. In 1973, he graduated from Union High School, and was later named to the Union High School Hall of Fame.
Liotta attended the University of Miami, where he studied acting and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1978. He performed in plays and musicals, including Cabaret, Dames at Sea, Oklahoma, and The Sound of Music, at the University of Miami's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.
Career
After graduating from the University of Miami, Liotta moved to New York City, where he was hired as a bartender at the Shubert Organization and landed an agent within six months. One of his earliest roles was as Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World, on which he appeared from 1978 to 1981. He left the show and moved to Los Angeles. He made his film debut in 1983's The Lonely Lady. His first major acting role was Something Wild (1986), for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination, this nomination being for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 1989, Liotta played the ghost of baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the fantasy/drama film Field of Dreams.
In 1990, Liotta portrayed real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's universally praised and commercially successful Academy Award winning film Goodfellas. In 1992, he starred as a psychopathic cop in the thriller Unlawful Entry. He appeared in a leading role in the 1994 science-fiction/action film No Escape. In 1995, he starred in the war comedy film Operation Dumbo Drop. In 1996, he starred in the sci-fi/thriller Unforgettable. Liotta earned critical praise for his turn in James Mangold's 1997 film Cop Land, and he received critical praise in 1998 for his performance as a compulsive gambler in Phoenix.
Liotta portrayed singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 television film The Rat Pack (for which he received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination). He starred as himself in the sitcom Just Shoot Me! in December 2001. He provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He appeared in the television drama ER in 2004, playing Charlie Metcalf in the episode "Time of Death".
The ER role earned Liotta an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Liotta later spoofed himself and his Emmy win in Bee Movie). Liotta starred in the 2006 CBS television series Smith, which was pulled from the schedule after three episodes. In 2012, Liotta appeared as himself in a purely vocal role for the "What a Croc!" episode of the Disney Channel comedy series Phineas and Ferb.
Liotta played the Justice Department official Paul Krendler in the 2001 film Hannibal opposite Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. Also in 2001, he played the father of drug dealer George Jung in the film Blow, and a victim of a mother-daughter con-artist team played by Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers. In 2002, he appeared as Detective Lieutenant Henry Oak in the Joe Carnahan-directed film Narc, a role that led to an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards nomination for Best Supporting Male.
Personal life
Liotta married Michelle Grace, an actress and producer, in February 1997 after they met at a baseball game, where her former husband Mark Grace was playing for the Chicago Cubs. They had a daughter before divorcing amicably in 2004.
On an episode of Jay Leno's Garage, Liotta revealed that Nancy and Tina Sinatra once sent Liotta a fake horse's head in the mail. The joke was in response to Liotta's declining to play their father in a miniseries they were working on, only to see Liotta play him in the 1998 HBO television film The Rat Pack.
In February 2007, he was charged with driving under the influence after crashing his Cadillac Escalade into two parked vehicles in Pacific Palisades. He pleaded no contest.
From his experience shooting the Western Texas Rising, Liotta continued horseback riding and said in September 2014: "I was obsessed with riding horses [on the show]. I love it now. I've never had a hobby. It might be my new hobby."
In May 2017, Liotta, along with talk show host and actress Kelly Ripa, was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
In 2018, while discussing his role alongside Jennifer Lopez as a corrupt cop targeted by the FBI in the NBC crime drama Shades of Blue, Liotta told a reporter for Long Island Weekly:
You want to do as many different genres as you can and that's what I've been doing. I've done movies with the Muppets. I did Sinatra. I did good guys and bad guys. I did a movie with an elephant. I decided that I was here to try different parts and do different things. That's what it's really all about. That's what a career should be.
In 2022, after wrapping up filming of Cocaine Bear, Liotta made a speech and stated that he was known for being Italian, but he did a heritage tree and found that he mostly has Irish ancestry.
Death
Liotta died in his sleep on May 26, 2022, at age 67, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, during the filming of Dangerous Waters. At the time of his death, he was engaged to Jacy Nittolo. An autopsy report released in 2023 concluded that Liotta's cause of death was respiratory failure, pulmonary edema, and heart failure, with atherosclerosis cited as an underlying issue.
Liotta was posthumously recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 24, 2023, with his daughter accepting the recognition on his behalf.