Ray Liotta

Raymond Allen Liotta (December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor.

Liotta was born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 18, 1954.

Having been 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.

His adoptive parents each unsuccessfully ran 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 1973, he graduated from Union High School, and was later named to the Union High School Hall of Fame.

The latter nominated him a posthumous Primetime Emmy Award for his role as Big Jim Keene at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

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.

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.

He first gained attention for his role in the film Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination.

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.

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).

In 1989, Liotta portrayed 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.

Liotta appeared in numerous other films, including Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), John Q. (2002), Identity (2003), Killing Them Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), and Marriage Story (2019).

In 1992, he starred as a psychopathic cop in the thriller Unlawful Entry.

He appeared in a leading role in the science-fiction/action film No Escape.

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.

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).

Liotta portrayed singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV film The Rat Pack (for which he received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination).

He hired a private detective to locate his biological mother, named Ruth, in the 2000s, from whom he learned his family was of Scottish descent.

He had one biological sister, one biological half-brother also named Ray, and five biological half-sisters.

Liotta grew up in a Roman Catholic household in Union, New Jersey, although his family was 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."

He starred as himself in the sitcom Just Shoot Me in December 2001.

He had a prominent voice acting role as Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).

In October 2002 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 won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role in the television series ER in 2005.

Liotta starred in the 2006 CBS television series Smith, which was pulled from the schedule after three episodes.