A big shock! Ray Liotta, the terrific actor who broke out in the 1990 Martin Scorsese crime classic Goodfellas after co-starring in Field of Dreams, has died. He was 67.
Deadline is reporting that Ray Liotta has died in his sleep, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters. We will have more details when they become available.
Karsen Liotta was his only child. He was engaged to Jacy Nittolo and they were going to get married.
A gallery of recent movie and media deaths.
Liotta is making a comeback. He has been in the news for his recent wide variety of movies. There was The Many Saints of Newark, Marriage Story — for which he shared an Indie Spirit Award for its ensemble — and No Sudden Move. He finished the Elizabeth Banks-directed Cocaine Bear and is set to star in Working Title film The Substance opposite Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.
He produced the new A&E docuseries, Five Families. It captures the dramatic rise and fall of the New York mafia’s Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese families.
Taron Egerton was already well-known for his roles in big-budget Hollywood films when he starred alongside Edgar Ramírez in Apple TV+ show Black Bird. He also portrayed a Prime Video character, and appeared as an antagonist opposite Jennifer Lopez on NBC’s Shades of Blue.
He won Primetime Emmy for his guest stint on ER and was a two-time SAG Award nominee for the 2015 miniseries Texas Rising and the 1998 telefilm The Rat Pack in which he starred as Frank Sinatra opposite Don Cheadle, Joe Mantegna and Angus Macfayden.
Of his earliest screen roles was his turn on Another World as Joey Perrini from 1978-81.
He had his first role in 1987, which was playing an outlaw who wants to be found in the Jonathan Demme-directed Something Wild. He then portrayed banned Chicago White Sox superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson opposite Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones in 1989, and followed that by playing gangster Henry Hill in Scorsese’s Goodfellas, opposite Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
The handsome ruggedly eye-colored Liotta was a perfect Henry Hill, narrating a tale of how he became involved in organized crime. It started their involvement in 1978 with the Lufthansa airport robbery and made off with more than $5 million.
He played memorable roles such as Hannibal, Narc, Blow and Copland.
Liotta was born on December 18, 1954 and studied acting at the University of Miami. He landed his first role in Another World before co-starring in Casablanca and guesting on other shows. David Soul starred as Rick.
Nick Liotta played a cop in the Mid-’80s ABC drama Our Family Honor. He later starred with Melanie Griffith and Tom Hulce in the 1988 drama Dominick and Eugene also starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
That led to him taking on two of his most famous roles.
Liotta played a ghostly version of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, widely considered among Hollywood’s great baseball movies. His character was banned from baseball for life after the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal and gets a chance to play again when Ray Kinsella (Costner) builds a stadium in an Iowa cornfield. Directed by Phil Alden Robinson and co-starring Jones, Amy Madigan, Burt Lancaster and Teri Garr. the film was nominated for three Oscars including Best Picture, which was won by Driving Miss Daisy.
Then Scorsese got in touch.
Timeless, a milestone American crime film, came off 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ and pivoted to the mob genre with Goodfellas, starring Liotta in the movie. This phenomenal film followed Hill’s spectacular rise and fall in the mafia and also starred De Niro, Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino. Critics called this a critical and commercial success, with Pesci winning for Best Supporting Actor.
