Ray Liotta, Goodfellas And Field of Dreams Star Passes Away At 67
Ray Liotta, the actor best known for playing mobster Henry Hill in “Goodfellas” and baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Field of Dreams,” has died.
Ray
Liotta,
the
actor
best
known
for
playing
mobster
Henry
Hill
in
“Goodfellas”
and
baseball
player
Shoeless
Joe
Jackson
in
“Field
of
Dreams,”
has
died.
He
was
67.
An
official
at
the
Dominican
Republic's
National
Forensic
Science
Institute
who
was
not
authorized
to
speak
to
the
media
confirmed
the
death
of
Ray
Liotta
and
said
his
body
was
taken
to
the
Cristo
Redentor
morgue.
The
Hollywood
Reporter
and
NBC
News
cited
representatives
for
Liotta
who
said
he
died
in
his
sleep
Wednesday
night.
He
was
in
the
Dominican
Republic
to
film
a
new
movie.
Lorraine
Bracco,
who
played
Karen
Hill
in
“Goodfellas”
tweeted
Thursday
that
she
was,
“Utterly
shattered
to
hear
this
terrible
news
about
my
Ray.
I
can
be
anywhere
in
the
world
&
people
will
come
up
&
tell
me
their
favourite
movie
is
Goodfellas.
Then
they
always
ask
what
was
the
best
part
of
making
that
movie.
My
response
has
always
been
the
same…Ray
Liotta.”
Alessandro
Nivola,
who
recently
appeared
with
Liotta
in
“The
Sopranos”
prequel
film
“The
Many
Saints
of
Newark”
wrote,
“I
feel
so
lucky
to
have
squared
off
against
this
legend
in
one
of
his
final
roles.
The
scenes
we
did
together
were
among
the
all
time
highlights
of
my
acting
career.
He
was
dangerous,
unpredictable,
hilarious,
and
generous
with
his
praise
for
other
actors.
Too
soon.”
Seth
Rogen,
who
Liotta
acted
with
in
the
2009
comedy
“Observe
and
Report”
tweeted,
“He
was
such
a
lovely,
talented
and
hilarious
person.
Working
with
him
was
one
of
the
great
joys
of
my
career
and
we
made
some
of
my
favorite
scenes
I
ever
got
to
be
in.
A
true
legend
of
immense
skill
and
grace.”
The
Newark,
New
Jersey,
native
was
born
in
1954
and
adopted
at
age
six
months
out
of
an
orphanage
by
a
township
clerk
and
an
auto
parts
owner.
Liotta
always
assumed
he
was
mostly
Italian
—
the
movies
did
too.
But
later
in
life
while
searching
for
his
birth
parents,
he
discovered
he's
actually
Scottish.
Though
he
grew
up
focused
on
playing
sports,
including
baseball,
during
his
senior
year
of
high
school,
the
drama
teacher
asked
him
if
he
wanted
to
be
in
a
play,
which
he
agreed
to
on
a
lark.
Whether
he
knew
it
or
not
at
the
time,
it
planted
a
seed,
though
he
still
assumed
he'd
end
up
working
construction.
And
later,
at
the
University
of
Miami
he
picked
drama
and
acting
because
they
had
no
math
requirement
attached.
He
would
often
say
in
interviews
that
he
only
started
auditioning
for
plays
because
a
pretty
girl
told
him
to.
But
it
set
him
on
a
course.
After
graduation,
he
got
an
agent
and
soon
he
got
his
first
big
break
on
the
soap
opera
“Another
World.”
It
would
take
a
few
years
for
him
to
land
his
first
big
movie
role,
in
Jonathan
Demme's
“Something
Wild”
as
Melanie
Griffith's
character's
hotheaded
ex-convict
husband
Ray.
He
was
30
years
old
at
the
time
and
hadn't
had
a
steady
job
in
five
years.
In
an
interview
in
1993,
he
told
The
Associated
Press
that
he
wanted
to
get
the
part
on
his
own
merits
even
though
he
knew
Griffith.
When
that
didn't
work,
he
“phoned
Melanie.
“I
hated
doing
it,
because
that's
politics
for
me;
calling
someone
to
help
you
out.
But
I
kind
of
realize
that's
part
of
what
it's
all
about,”
he
said.
The
turn
earned
him
a
Golden
Globe
nomination.
A
few
years
later,
he
would
get
the
memorable
role
of
the
ghost
of
Shoeless
Joe
Jackson
in
“Field
of
Dreams.”
Though
it
moved
many
to
tears,
it
wasn't
without
its
critics.
Liotta
later
recalled
hearing
a
baseball
announcer
during
a
Mets
game
complain
that
he
batted
the
opposite
way
Joe
Jackson
did.
“(Bleep)
you!
He
didn't
come
back
from
the
dead
either!”
Liotta
recalled
thinking.
His
most
iconic
role,
as
real
life
mobster
Henry
Hill
in
Martin
Scorsese's
“Goodfellas”
came
shortly
after.
He,
and
Scorsese,
had
to
fight
for
it
though,
with
multiple
auditions
and
pleas
to
the
studio
to
cast
the
still
relative
unknown.
“The
thing
about
that
movie,
you
know,
Henry
Hill
isn't
that
edgy
of
a
character,”
Liotta
said
in
an
interview
in
2012.
“It's
really
the
other
guys
who
are
doing
all
the
actual
killings.
The
one
physical
thing
he
does
do,
when
he
goes
after
the
guy
who
went
after
Karen
—
you
know,
most
audiences,
they
actually
like
him
for
that.”
In
the
same
interview,
he
marvelled
at
how
“Goodfellas”
had
a
“life
of
its
own"
and
has
only
grown
over
time.
“People
watch
it
over
and
over,
and
still
respond
to
it,
and
different
ages
come
up,
even
today,
teenagers
come
up
to
me
and
they
really
emotionally
connect
to
it,”
he
said.
It
didn't
matter
the
size
of
the
role,
Liotta
always
managed
to
stand
out
and
steal
scenes,
whether
as
Johnny
Depp's
father
in
“Blow”
or
Adam
Driver's
bullish
divorce
lawyer
in
“Marriage
Story”.