Ray Liotta Passed Away!

Ray Liotta passed away.

Iconic tough guy Ray Liotta has passed away. 

He was in the Dominican Republic filming a movie when it was confirmed he passed away in his sleep. He was 67 years old.

Liotta is best known for his role in The Goodfellas movie. He was the voice of Thomas "Tommy" Vercetti in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game.

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 and auto-parts store owner Alfred Liotta. Mary was of Scottish descent. Alfred, the son of Italian immigrants, was also a personnel director and president of a local Democratic Party club. His adoptive parents each unsuccessfully ran for local office; he recalls attending parades to hand out flyers for his father's run. 

Liotta has a sister, Linda, who is also adopted. He has said that he knew he was adopted as a young child and presented a show-and-tell report on it for kindergarten. He hired a private detective to locate his biological mother in the 2000s, and subsequently learned from her that he is mostly of Scottish descent. He has one biological sister, one biological half-brother, and five biological half-sisters. He grew up in a Roman Catholic household in Union, New Jersey, although his family was not very religious. 

They went to church and he received first communion and was confirmed, but the family did not pray much. He occasionally uses prayer in his daily life. He graduated from Union High School in 1973. He graduated from the University of Miami, where he studied acting and received a BFA in 1978. 

Deadline hears he died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters.

Liotta leaves behind a daughter, Karsen. He was engaged to be married to Jacy Nittolo.

Liotta was on a big resurgence. Recent turns included The Many Saints of Newark, Marriage Story and No Sudden Move. He finished the Elizabeth Banks-directed Cocaine Bear and was due to star in the Working Title film The Substance opposite Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

He also starred with Taron Egerton in the Apple TV+ series Black Bird.

He had his “who’s thar?” turn in the Jonathan Demme-directed Something Wild and got a Golden Globe nomination, and then played banned Chicago superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams. He then quickly followed playing gangster Henry Hill in Scorsese’s Goodfellas, opposite Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in what was to be the defining role of his career. The ruggedly handsome, blue eyed Liotta was a perfect Henry Hill, narrating a tale of his growth into an organized crime gang, the one that pulled off the famous Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennery International Airport in 1978, making off with more than $5 million in cash and jewels stored in the German airline’s air cargo building. The film, which Nicholas Pileggi adapted with Scorsese from his book, was nominated for six Oscars, with Pesci the lone win.

His other memorable roles included Hannibal, Narc, Blow and Copland.