Ray Liotta Biography

Raymond Allen "Ray" Liotta (born December 18, 1954) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellas (1990) and for his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989). He has won an Emmy Award and been nominated for Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.

Early life

Liotta was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was adopted at the age of six months by Mary Liotta, an appointed township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, an auto parts store owner, personnel director, and the president of a local Democratic club. Both of his parents unsuccessfully ran for local office. Liotta's adoptive parents were of Italian and Scottish/Irish ancestry; his biological parents were not of Italian descent. In 1973, Liotta graduated from Union High School in Union, New Jersey and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 1992. Liotta studied acting at the University of Miami, where he performed at the university's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.

Career

One of Liotta's earliest roles was as Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World; he appeared on the show from 1978 to 1981. He infamously made his film debut in a sexual assault scene with Pia Zadora and a garden hose in the 1983 cult classic The Lonely Lady. In 1987, he earned his first Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of volatile ex-con Ray Sinclair in Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild (1986). In 1989, he costarred alongside Kevin Costner in the fantasy/drama film Field of Dreams"?Liotta portrayed Shoeless Joe Jackson, the ghost of the famed baseball player. In 1990, Liotta portrayed real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas. In 1992, he costarred as a psychopathic cop alongside Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe in the thriller Unlawful Entry. He also appeared in a leading role in the sci-fi/action film No Escape. Liotta would earn more critical praise for his turn in James Mangold's film Cop Land, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, and Harvey Keitel. In 1998, he received critical praise for his performance in the crime film Phoenix, in which he plays decent policeman Harry Collins who is also a compulsive gambler.

In addition to his film roles, Liotta portrayed singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack (for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination), he provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and appeared in the television drama ER in 2004, playing Charlie Metcalf in the episode "Time of Death". The ER role earned Liotta an Emmy for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" (Liotta would later spoof himself and his Emmy win in Bee Movie). Liotta starred in the 2006 CBS television series Smith, which was pulled from the schedule after only three episodes had aired, and, in 2012, Liotta appeared as himself in a purely vocal role for the "What a Croc!" episode of the Disney Channel comedy series Phineas & Ferb.

Liotta played the father of drug dealer George Jung in the 2001 Johnny Depp film Blow and, in the following year, appeared as Det. Lt. Henry Oak in the Joe Carnahan-directed film Narc, a role that led to an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards nomination for Best Supporting Male"?many critics considered the role to be Liotta's career best. He then reunited with director James Mangold in 2003, alongside John Cusack and Alfred Molina, in the dark horror-thriller Identity. In 2005, he narrated Inside the Mafia for the National Geographic Channel. He later appeared in Smokin' Aces"?reuniting with Narc director Carnahan"?in which he portrayed an FBI agent named Donald Carruthers in one of the lead roles.

Liotta appeared with John Travolta in the movie Wild Hogs, in Battle in Seattle as the city's mayor, and in Hero Wanted as a detective alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.. He was also in Crossing Over, co-starring Harrison Ford. Liotta played Detective Harrison in the 2009 Jody Hill comedy Observe and Report as Seth Rogen's nemesis from the local police. In 2011, he starred in The Son of No One, opposite Channing Tatum and, for the first time in his career, Al Pacino.

Liotta's recent movies include Date Night with Steve Carell, Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron, the independent drama Snowmen, and The River Sorrow, which stars Liotta as a detective alongside Christian Slater and Ving Rhames. Liotta starred alongside Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini in the 2012 Andrew Dominik film Killing Them Softly and the 2013 Ariel Vromen film The Iceman features Liotta as the character of Roy DeMeo. As of April 2013, Liotta is working on acting roles in Suddenly and The Muppets ... Again!.

Personal life

Liotta married actress Michelle Grace in February 1997 after they had met at her ex-husband (Mark Grace)'s professional baseball game. The couple co-starred in The Rat Pack, in which Liotta played Frank Sinatra and Grace played Judith Campbell Exner. Their daughter Karsen was born in December 1998, six years prior to the couple's divorce in 2004.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1983	'	Joe Heron
1986	Something Wild	Ray Sinclair	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture Nominated: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (3rd place) Nominated: New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor (3rd place)
1988	Arena Brains	The Artist	Short film
	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	Nominated: MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
1994	No Escape	Capt. J.T. Robbins
	Corrina, Corrina	Manny Singer
1995	Operation Dumbo Drop	Capt. T.C. Doyle
1996	Unforgettable	Dr. David Krane
1997	Turbulence	Ryan Weaver
	Cop Land	Det. Gary "Figgsy" Figgis
1998	Phoenix	Harry Collin	Also Co-Producer
	Forever Mine	Mark Brice
1999	Muppets from Space	Gate Guard # 1	Cameo Appearance
2000	Pilgrim	Jack
	A Rumor of Angels	Nathan Neubauer
2001	Hannibal	Paul Krendler
	Heartbreakers	Dean Cummano
	Blow	Fred Jung
2002	Narc	Det. Lt. Henry Oak	Also producer Nominated: Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Nominated: Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
	John Q	Chief Gus Monroe
	Ticker	FBI Agent	Short film
	101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure	Tuck	Voice only
2003	Identity	Rhodes
2004	'	Jack Devine
	Control	Lee Ray Oliver	Direct-to-video
2005	Revolver	Macha
2006	Comeback Season	Walter Pearce
2007	Slow Burn	Ford Cole
	Even Money	Tom Carver
	Smokin' Aces	Donald Carruthers
	Wild Hogs	Jack
	Bee Movie	Himself	Voice only
2008	Local Color	John Talia Sr.
	In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale	Gallian
	Battle in Seattle	Mayor Jim Tobin
	Hero Wanted	Det. Terry Subcott
	Chasing 3000	Adult Mickey
2009	Crossing Over	Cole Frankel
	Powder Blue	Jack Doheny
	Observe and Report	Det. Harrison
	La Linea	Mark Shields	Also executive producer
	Ticket Out	Jim
2010	Youth in Revolt	Lance Wescott
	Crazy on the Outside	Gray
	Date Night	Joe Miletto
	Charlie St. Cloud	Florio Ferrente
	Snowmen	Reggie Kirkfield
2011	Street Kings: Motor City	Marty Kingston
	'	Jack Verdon
	The Details	Peter
	The Entitled	Richard Nader
	Son of No One	Captain Marion Mathers
	All Things Fall Apart	Dr. Brintall
2012	Killing Them Softly	Markie Trattman
	The Devil's in the Details	Dr. Robert Michaels
2013	The Place Beyond the Pines	Deluca
	Suddenly	Todd
	The Iceman	Roy DeMeo
	Better Living Through Chemistry		Post-production
2014	Revenge of the Green Dragons		Filming
	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Joey	Filming
	Stretch		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978"1981	Another World	Joey Perrini #2
1980	Hardhat and Legs	Family	CBS Television movie
1983	St. Elsewhere	Murray	Episode: "Rain"
1983	Casablanca	Sacha
1984	Mike Hammer	Tony Cable	Episode: "Kill Devil"
1985	Our Family Honor	Officer Ed Santini
1990	Women and Men: Stories of Seduction	Jerry Damon	HBO television movie
1991	Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules	Martin Meadows	HBO television movie
1995	Frasier	Bob	Episode: "Frasier Grinch"
1998	'	Frank Sinatra	Television movie Nominated: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2001	Family Guy	Zack	Episode: "Brian Does Hollywood"
	Just Shoot Me	Himself	Episode: "Christmas? Christmas!" Episode: Liotta? Liotta!"
2002	Point of Origin	John Leonard Orr/Aaron	HBO television movie
2004	ER	Charlie Metcalf	Episode: "Time of Death" Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor " Drama Series Prism Award for Best Performance in a Drama Series Episode
2006"2007	Smith	Bobby Stevens
2008	SpongeBob SquarePants	Trevor (voice)	Guest appearance, Episode "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?"
2010	Hannah Montana Forever	Principal Luger	Guest appearance
2011	The League		Guest appearance
2012	Phineas and Ferb	Himself	Guest appearance, Episode "What A Croc!"
2012	NTSF:SD:SUV::	The Reader	Season 2, Episode 12: Wasilla Hills Cop

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	Tommy Vercetti	Voice Over G-Phoria Award for Best Male Voice Performance Spike Video Game Awards for Best Performance by a Human (2003)
2013	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	Billy Handsome	Uprising DLC, on the zombies map Mob of the Dead
	"Grand Theft Auto Five"	Micheal Townley / De Santa	Voice Over