The actor died at the age of 67.
Goodfellaswas always destined to be the first plastic film note in Ray Liotta ’s obituaries , and that was the face when theactor croak suddenly , in his sleep , at the age of 67 this week . His execution as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese ’s mobster epic is one for the long time . Close your eye and you’re able to hear his voice - over , that typical , almost saturnine lilt saying , " As far back as I can think , I always wanted to be a gangster . " As Hill , in those striped knit shirts , he was seductive and dangerous , luring you into his life of criminal offense just as he lures his hesitating girlfriend Karen ( Lorraine Bracco ) . When , in the last act , he becomes strung - out and jittery — paranoid from the coke and his impending downfall — Liotta ’s piercing dingy eye bear the weight of that anxiety .
Henry Hill made Liotta an ikon , but he was an actor who was always so much more than his most far-famed role .
Even beforeGoodfellascame out in 1990 , Liotta was take execution that could completely upend a pic , bending the narrative to his will . In Jonathan Demme ’s sort - of - rom - comSomething Wild , he appears around the Battle of Midway point as Ray , the violent , explosive husband of the heroine Lulu , portrayed by Melanie Griffith . Lulu starts the film as an fluid force-out for the hearing . She traps nervous , dally yuppie Charlie ( Jeff Daniels ) in her railway car and under her while , take away him back to her hometown to attend her gamey school reunification . That ’s where Ray comes in , hijacking Charlie and Lulu ’s night by bringing them along on a low - stakes robbery . Liotta is arguably at his most physically beautiful , but he utilize that beauty to terrific effect . The threatening energy radiates out of him , even when he express mirth , a cackle that can chill your rachis , his mouth goggle as if to devour the out - of - his - depth Charlie .
Orion Pictures
Liotta was so good at playing unhinged that you might forget how sensitive he can be . Just a year beforeGoodfellas , he had the small but pivotal office of Shoeless Joe Jackson inField of Dreams , who walks out of a cornfield class after he was banish from baseball game for fixing the World Series . It ’s trite to say a carrying out is " obsessed , " but Liotta ’s is . In just a few scene , you see the weight of a man ’s unfulfilled wish when he is undone in fourth dimension . It ’s ghostly but endearing . " Man , I did roll in the hay this game"—the way his centre search as he whispers these Holy Writ will break your heart .
More late , Liotta had been turning in expectedly large piece of work . He was screaming as a bullish divorce lawyer inMarriage Story , sparring with Laura Dern in her Oscar - winning performance , and once again thoroughly scary as an scurrilous family gaffer in Steven Soderbergh’sNo Sudden Move . In theSopranosprequelThe Many Saints of Newark , he throw dual performances as twin chum , representing two sides of the Maffia life . And he has more performance on the way , includingCocaine Bear , directed by Elizabeth Banks , and aCharlie mean solar day - send comedyco - star Kate Beckinsale , Jason Sudeikis , and Edie Falco .
So while no one can blame you if you fire upGoodfellasto memorialize Liotta — it ’s the best , after all — don’t draw a blank he was so good in so much .
