Ray Liotta facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ray Liotta
Liotta in 2012
Born	(1954-12-18)December 18, 1954 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	May 26, 2022(2022-05-26) (aged 67) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Alma mater	University of Miami (BFA)
Occupation	Actor film producer
Years active	1978–2022
Spouse(s)	Michelle Grace ​ ​ (m. 1997; div. 2004)​
Children	1

Raymond Allen Liotta (December 18, 1954 – May 26, 2022) was an American actor. He became well-known for his role in the movie Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. He was most famous for playing Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989) and Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990).

Liotta appeared in many other films, including Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), and Blow (2001). He also starred in Marriage Story (2019) and The Many Saints of Newark (2021). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role in the TV show ER in 2005. He played Frank Sinatra in the TV movie The Rat Pack (1998) and starred in the series Shades of Blue (2016–2018). He also voiced Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002).

Early life and education

Liotta was born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 18, 1954. He was adopted at six months old by Mary and Alfred Liotta, after being left at an orphanage. His adoptive parents had Italian and Scottish backgrounds. Alfred worked as a personnel director and led a local Democratic Party group. Both of his adoptive parents tried to run for local political jobs.

Ray Liotta had an adopted sister named Linda. He knew he was adopted from a young age. Later, he hired a detective to find his biological mother, who was Irish. He found out he had one biological sister, one biological half-brother, and five biological half-sisters.

Liotta grew up in Union, New Jersey, in a Roman Catholic home. He graduated from Union High School in 1973. He was later added to the Union High School Hall of Fame.

College studies

Liotta went to the University of Miami. He studied acting there and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978. He performed in many plays and musicals at the university, such as Cabaret and The Sound of Music.

Acting career

After college, Liotta moved to New York City. He worked as a bartender and soon found an agent. One of his first acting jobs was playing Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World from 1978 to 1981. He then moved to Los Angeles.

His first movie role was in The Lonely Lady (1983). His first big role was in Something Wild (1986), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 1989, Liotta played the ghost of baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the movie Field of Dreams.

In 1990, Liotta played the real-life gangster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's famous film Goodfellas. In 1992, he starred as a police officer in the thriller Unlawful Entry. He also had main roles in films like No Escape and Unforgettable. Liotta received good reviews for his role in Cop Land (1997) and for playing a gambler in Phoenix.

Liotta played singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack. In 2002, he voiced Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He appeared in the TV drama ER in 2004, which won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He even made fun of himself and his Emmy win in the movie Bee Movie.

Liotta played a government official named Paul Krendler in the 2001 film Hannibal. He also appeared in Blow (2001) and Narc (2002). In 2003, he worked again with director James Mangold in the thriller Identity. In 2005, he narrated Inside the Mafia for the National Geographic Channel. He also appeared in the film Smokin' Aces (2006) as an FBI agent. In 2004, Liotta performed on Broadway in the play Match.

Liotta, Winona Ryder and Michael Shannon at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of The Iceman.

In 2007, Liotta appeared with John Travolta in Wild Hogs and played the mayor in Battle in Seattle. He voiced a character in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" in 2008. In 2009, he was in Crossing Over with Harrison Ford and played a detective in Observe and Report.

In the 2010s, Liotta appeared in movies like Date Night with Steve Carell and Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron. He also starred in Killing Them Softly (2012) and The Iceman (2012). He had a supporting role in Muppets Most Wanted (2014).

In 2014, he played a preacher in The Identical. He also appeared in Kill the Messenger and Stretch. He starred in the Western TV series Texas Rising in 2015, which earned him another award nomination. From 2015 to 2016, he narrated the TV series The Making of the Mob. Liotta starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in the TV show Shades of Blue from 2016 to 2018.

In 2019, Liotta played a divorce lawyer in the film Marriage Story, which was highly praised. In 2021, he played twin brothers in The Many Saints of Newark, a movie that tells the story before the TV series The Sopranos.

Personal life

Liotta at the Deauville Film Festival in France, September 2014

Liotta married actress and producer Michelle Grace in 1997. They met at a baseball game. They had a daughter named Karsen before they divorced in 2004.

Once, Nancy Sinatra and Tina Sinatra, who are Frank Sinatra's daughters, sent Liotta a horse's head in the mail. This was a joke because Liotta had turned down playing their father in one TV show, but then played him in another, The Rat Pack.

After filming the Western Texas Rising, Liotta became very interested in horseback riding. He said it might become his new hobby. In May 2017, Liotta was added to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Liotta once said that he liked to try many different kinds of roles. He said, "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."

Death and recognition

Ray Liotta passed away in his sleep on May 26, 2022, at the age of 67. He was in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, filming a movie called Dangerous Waters at the time.

Liotta was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 24, 2023. His daughter, Karsen, accepted the award for him.

Filmography

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Lonely Lady, TheThe Lonely Lady	Joe Heron	Film debut
1986	Something Wild	Ray Sinclair
1987	Arena Brains	The Artist	Short film
1988	Dominick and Eugene	Eugene "Gino" Luciano
1989	Field of Dreams	Shoeless Joe Jackson
1990	Goodfellas	Henry Hill
1992	Article 99	Dr. Richard Sturgess
	Unlawful Entry	Officer Pete Davis
1994	No Escape	Captain J.T. Robbins
	Corrina, Corrina	Manny Singer
1995	Operation Dumbo Drop	Captain T.C. Doyle
1996	Unforgettable	Dr. David Krane
1997	Turbulence	Ryan Weaver
	Cop Land	Detective Gary "Figgsy" Figgis
1998	Phoenix	Detective Harry Collins	Also co-producer
1999	Muppets from Space	Gate Guard	Cameo
	Forever Mine	Mark Brice
2000	Pilgrim	Jack
	Rumor of Angels, AA Rumor of Angels	Nathan Neubauer
2001	Hannibal	Paul Krendler
	Heartbreakers	Dean Cummano / Vinny Staggliano
	Blow	Fred Jung
2002	Narc	Lieutenant Henry Oak	Also producer
	John Q.	Chief Gus Monroe
	Ticker	Secret Service agent	BMW short film for The Hire
2003	Identity	Officer Rhodes
2004	The Last Shot	Jack Devine
	Control	Lee Ray Oliver	Direct-to-DVD
2005	Revolver	Dorothy Macha
	Slow Burn	Ford Cole	Also co-executive producer
2006	Even Money	Tom Carver
	Take the Lead		Executive producer
	Local Color	John Talia Sr.
	Comeback Season	Walter Pearce
	Smokin' Aces	FBI Agent Donald Carruthers
2007	Wild Hogs	Jack Blade
	In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale	Gallian
	Battle in Seattle	Mayor Jim Tobin
	Bee Movie	Himself (voice)
2008	Hero Wanted	Detective Terry Subcott	Direct-to-DVD
	Powder Blue	Jack Doheny
2009	Crossing Over	Cole Frankel
	Observe and Report	Detective Harrison
	The Line	Mark Shields	Also executive producer
	Youth in Revolt	Lance Wescott
2010	Crazy on the Outside	Gray
	Date Night	Joe Miletto	Uncredited
	Snowmen	Reggie Kirkfield	Also executive producer
	Chasing 3000	Adult Mickey
	Charlie St. Cloud	Florio Ferrente
2011	The Details	Peter Mazzoni
	Son of No One, TheThe Son of No One	Capt. Mathers
	All Things Fall Apart	Dr. Brintall
	Street Kings 2: Motor City	Detective Marty Kingston	Direct-to-DVD
	River Murders, TheThe River Murders	Jack Verdon
	Field of Dreams 2: Lockout	Roger Goodell	Short film for Funny or Die
	Entitled, TheThe Entitled	Richard Nader
2012	Wanderlust	Himself	Cameo
	Killing Them Softly	Markie Trattman
	Breathless	Sheriff Cooley
	The Iceman	Roy DeMeo
	Place Beyond the Pines, TheThe Place Beyond the Pines	Peter Deluca
	Ticket Out	Jim
	Yellow	Afai
	Bad Karma	Molloy
	Dear Dracula	Count Dracula (voice)	Direct-to-DVD
2013	Devil's in the Details, TheThe Devil's in the Details	Dr. Bruce Michaels
	Pawn	Man in the Suit
	Suddenly	Todd Shaw
2014	Better Living Through Chemistry	Elizabeth's Husband
	Muppets Most Wanted	Big Papa
	The Identical	Reece Wade	Also executive producer
	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Joey
	Revenge of the Green Dragons	FBI Agent Michael Bloom
	Stretch	Himself	Cameo
	Kill the Messenger	John Cullen
2015	Blackway	Blackway
	Campus Code	Bartender
2016	Sticky Notes	Jack
	Flock of Dudes	Uncle Reed
2019	Marriage Story	Jay Marotta
2020	Hubie Halloween	Pete Landolfa
2021	No Sudden Move	Frank Capelli
	The Many Saints of Newark	Aldo "Hollywood Dick" Moltisanti / Salvatore "Sally" Moltisanti
2022	Every Last Secret	Mr. Ancilla
2023	... Bear	Syd	Posthumous release
	Fool's Paradise		Completed, posthumous release
TBA	The Substance		Post-production, posthumous release
	Dangerous Waters
	Clash	Lowell

Television

Video games

Theater

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Ray Liotta para niños