He was only 67 years old… American actor Ray Liotta died on Thursday, May 26. Revealed by “Les Affranchis”, he had amazed moviegoers in “Narc”, “Hannibal” or even “Copland”.
If there were to remain only one role, it would certainly be that of Henry Hill, the gangster of the Freedmen. But Ray Liotta is not the actor of a film, his talent bursts in dozens of feature films and a handful of series… The actor died in his sleep on the night of May 25 to 26, 2022, so that he was on the set of a new movie in the Dominican Republic. The causes of his death have not been revealed. He was 67 years old.
New jersey kid
Raymond Allen Liotta, known as Ray, was born in New Jersey and was adopted six months later by a couple of fervent Democrats. After high school, he went to study acting at the University of Miami, where he became friends with actor Steven Bauer. Some time later, he made his television debut in the soap-opera Another World, in which he played from 1978 to 1981. He then appeared in a few short series and television films before taking his first steps in the cinema with The Lonely Lady ( 1983). It was in 1986, on the recommendation of Melanie Griffith (then married to Steven Bauer), that he plays alongside the actress his first major role, that of a psychopathic husband, in Dangerous in all respects which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting role.
Scorsese and DeNiro
However, he truly achieved consecration in 1990 with Freedmen by Martin Scorsese, a cult mafia film in which he plays the gangster Henry Hill, thus appearing as the worthy successor to Robert De Niro who plays his mentor in the film. Subsequently, Ray Liotta specializes in thrillers. He plays, for example, a disreputable cop in Fatal Obsession (1992) by Jonathan Kaplan, a medical examiner looking for his wife’s murderer in Suspicious Memoirs (1996) by John Dahl, a drug-addicted police officer in Copland (1997) by James Mangold (which allows him to find Robert DeNiro), or an ambiguous FBI agent in Hannibal (2001) by Ridley Scott. In 2002, he produced, via his company Tiara Blu Films, Narc, a nervous thriller by Joe Carnahan in which he played a narcotics officer with expeditious methods. The following year, he played the role of a troubled cop in the labyrinthine thriller Identity in which he was again directed by James Mangoldbefore continuing with a series of films with limited success that did not leave the American market.
Second knife but fine blade
Apart from his interpretation of the hero of the science fiction film Absolom 2022 in 1994 (a bitter failure at the box office), the actor is mainly confined to the roles of outstanding second knives and, as a result, connects projects by alternating genres. At ease in thrillers, he is equally so in light comedies: a widowed father in the family comedy Corrina, Corrina (1994), a rich man deceived by Sigourney Weaver in Poisoned Beauties in 2001, a biker who has to opposite John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, Tim Allen and William H. Macy in Band of Savages (2007), or even a gangster in the crazy Crazy Night (2010).
Facing Jason Statham
In 2004, Ray Liotta appeared in an episode of the eleventh season of Urgences, Time of Death, which tracks the last hour of his character’s life in real time. For this role, he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. After this distinction, he is back at the top of the bill in the cinema thanks to Guy Ritchie who entrusts him with the role of a high-flying mobster struggling with his lifelong rival played by Jason Statham for the needs of Revolver (2005) , and the following year he found Joe Carnahan for the priced Mi$e explosive. Also in 2006, he made his return to television taking the lead role in the series Dossier Smith which lasted only 7 episodes. In 2010, Ray Liotta joined Harrison Ford in Right of Passage, a crime drama centered on illegal immigration which, like many of his films, was a box office failure. As usual, he continues to chain minor films intended for the DVD market (The Line, Missed Route), which does not prevent him from showing quality productions. Thus, in 2012, he was part of the cast of the film in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival which stars Brad Pitt (Killing Them Softly), and, the same year, gave the reply to Bradley Cooper for the needs of the thriller The Place. Beyond The Pines.
A duet with J-Lo
After a stint in front of the Nick Cassavetes camera in Yellow, Ray went on to moderately successful thrillers – The Devil in Person, Pawn, The Iceman… Then he varied genres. It is found in the rom com Blonde sur Ordonnance, in the comedy Operation Muppets or in the musical drama inspired by the life of the King, The Identical. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller offered him an appearance in Sin City 2. In 2014, he starred in State Secret, a film acclaimed by critics and led by the excellent Jeremy Renner (Minesweepers, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol). His performance in the Texas Rising miniseries earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. After a detour full of self-mockery by Modern Family, he was chosen to give the reply to Jennifer Lopez in Shades of Blue, a new series from NBC launched in January 2016. This is his first major role in a few years. His corrupt cop character, Lt. Matt Wozniak, is the target of an FBI investigation.
The Goodfellas trailer: