Ray Liotta, ‘Goodfellas’ star and gifted character actor, dies at 67

Ray Liotta throughout “GoodFellas” Special Edition DVD Release at Matteo’s Italian Cafe in Los Angeles, California, United States.

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Ray Liotta, the actor very best known for portraying mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” and bringing magnetically edgy vitality to a gallery of criminal offense dramas and thrillers, has died.

He was 67.

Liotta died in his rest in the Dominican Republic, the place he was filming the motion picture “Harmful Waters,” in accordance to his publicist, Jennifer Allen. No foul play is suspected, in accordance to Allen, who said Liotta’s fiancée Jacy Nittolo was with him on the island.

In an performing career that spanned 4 many years, Liotta proven himself as a single of the most dependable tough-man performers in Hollywood, competent at portraying cops and criminals in movies like “Something Wild,” “Cop Land” and “Killing Them Softly.”

But he sometimes showed off a hotter aspect, endearing himself to audiences as the ghost of baseball big Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Subject of Desires,” reverse Kevin Costner.

“Goodfellas” was indisputably the significant-water mark of his vocation, having said that, delivering him with a juicy guide function in a ten years-spanning mafia epic co-starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. He portrayed Henry Hill, a true-lifestyle mob affiliate who receives swept up in the thrill and glamour of the legal underworld.

“I was pretty saddened to master of Ray’s passing. He is way also younger to have left us,” De Niro reported in a statement. “May perhaps he Relaxation in Peace.”

In an e mail to NBC News, Pesci claimed: “God is a Goodfella, and so is Ray.”

Actor Ray Liotta attends the closing night time screening of ‘Goodfellas’ during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival at Beacon Theatre on April 25, 2015 in New York Town.

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In the wake of “Goodfellas,” Liotta remained a respected display screen artist and recognizable face, reinventing himself in the later on years of his career as a character actor who could add gravitas and swagger to any scene.

He liked a little-scale comeback in current many years, showing up as a divorce attorney in Noah Baumbach’s “Relationship Story,” a mob chief in Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Go,” and a New Jersey bigwig in “The Lots of Saints of Newark,” a prequel to HBO’s “The Sopranos.”

“I used to assume, when I to start with began performing, that I experienced to working experience every thing to be able to do it. But then I realized that what acting is is working with your creativity,” Liotta instructed The New York Instances for a profile posted in 1992.

Raymond Allen Liotta was born on Dec. 18, 1954, in New Jersey. He was adopted by Alfred and Mary Liotta when he was a infant. He manufactured his acting debut in the NBC daytime cleaning soap opera “A further Entire world,” then struggled to obtain significant Hollywood perform.

He scored his breakout job in Jonathan Demme’s off-kilter comedy “Some thing Wild,” actively playing Melanie Griffith’s psychotic ex-convict partner — a switch that hinted at the disarming nerviness he could convey to the monitor.

“Discipline of Desires” elevated his status and “Goodfellas” catapulted him into American movie historical past. (Pesci was the only “Goodfellas” solid member to get an Academy Award nomination, profitable the greatest supporting actor Oscar in 1991.)

Liotta will permanently be linked with dialogue he utters in voiceover at the start of “Goodfellas,” namely: “As much back as I can bear in mind, I normally wanted to be a gangster.” The line summed up Scorsese’s eyesight of mid-century mob existence as the best aspiration for guys with shaky morals.

The a long time that followed have been a blended bag for Liotta’s occupation. He alternated amongst gritty crime sagas, thrillers and comedies. The highlights bundled keyed-up turns in movies like “Blow,” “Narc,” “John Q,” “Identification” and “The Area Beyond the Pines.”

He sometimes showed up on tv, as well, playing himself on the sitcom “Just Shoot Me!” and co-starring with Jennifer Lopez on the NBC cop drama “Shades of Blue.”

In the current “Sopranos” prequel movie “The Many Saints of Newark,” Liotta played a dual function, making “two distinctly individual characters,” according to “Sopranos” creator David Chase.

“I have been an admirer of Ray’s work considering that I saw him in ‘Something Wild,’ a film he wrenched by the tail. I was so happy he labored on ‘The Many Saints of Newark.’ I thought strongly in my heart that he could perform that double purpose,” Chase explained in a assertion.

“We all felt we lucked out having him on that movie,” he additional.

Liotta was married to Michelle Grace and had a person daughter.