Basics
Name: Ray Liotta
Birthdate: December 18, 1954
Hometown: Newark, New Jersey
Biography
A lead actor with piercing blue eyes, pockmarked skin, and a wicked laugh, who gives the overall impression of a 1950s doo-wop singer crossed with a psychopath, Ray Liotta began his career on the NBC daytime soap "Another World" and demonstrated his versatility playing such roles as a violent ex-convict ("Something Wild" 1986), a medical student caring for his brain-damaged brother ("Dominick and Eugene" 1988) and back-from-the-dead baseball great 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson ("Field of Dreams" 1989). In Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild,” Liotta switched genres as radically as the film does, metamorphosing from cutely sinister to an unstoppable force of nature whose violence was more directly, individually physical than that of most gun-toting action heroes.
This scary piece of work jump-started Liotta's career. His range and presence in a limited role presaged his commanding performance in Martin Scorsese's "GoodFellas" (1990), as a brutal yet sympathetic mobster destined by his Irish heritage to remain on the fringes of the organization. Later, Liotta displayed a softer edge as a heart surgeon who leads a revolt against the Washington bureaucracy at a veterans' hospital in "Article 99" (1992) but went back to his old psycho ways in the bad-cop thriller, "Unlawful Entry" (1992). He followed with performances as a testosterone-laden inmate of a futuristic penal colony in "No Escape" (1994), a by-the-book captain who must replace a Vietnamese village's elephant in Disney's "Operation Dumbo Drop" (1995) and an alcoholic medical examiner in the very forgettable "Unforgettable" (1996).
It is ironic that a guy who appeared mostly in musicals in college and "played the nicest guy in the world—never fought, nice to his mother, wasn't one of those fool-arounds"—on "Another World" has made his mark as a man of menace. His quieter work in movies like "Dominick and Eugene" and "Corrina, Corrina" (1994), as a widower who hires Whoopi Goldberg to help him take care of his daughter, has not captured the public's fancy. He returned to familiar terrain as the crazed serial killer of "Turbulence" and earned particular praise for his performance as a police officer who wrestles with his conscience in "Cop Land" (both 1997) before aligning himself with the right side of the law represented by Sheriff Sylvester Stallone. He once again played a crooked cop seeking redemption in "Phoenix" (1998), but the HBO movie "Rat Pack" (1998) afforded him the opportunity to explore other aspects of his character as legendary crooner Frank Sinatra.
After a cameo as a security guard in the light-hearted, albeit cheesy, “Muppets From Space”(1999), Liotta played a chop-shop entrepreneur who gets hoodwinked by a mother-daughter scam artist team (Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt) in “Heartbreakers” (2001). In the noir thriller, “Inferno” (Cinemax, 2000), he was an amnesiac stranded in the desert who, after finding a bludgeoned corpse, discovers the true nature of his identity. Liotta then played a ruthless businessman who leaves a cabana boy (Joseph Fiennes) for dead after learning of an affair with his wife in “Forever Mine” (Starz!, 2000). In “Hannibal” (2001), he played the chauvinistic boss of Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore), while in the true-life “Blow” (2001), he was a construction worker who struggled to provide for his family, raising a son (Johnny Depp) who went on to become one of the biggest suppliers of Columbian cocaine in America.
Liotta next played Henry Oak, a tough-guy cop who does what it takes to get a bust in “Narc” (2002), a grim and gritty indie feature from writer-director Joe Carnahan (“Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane”). Paired off with a guilt-ridden cop (Jason Patric) given a reprieve after a police chase gone bad, Oak, whose partner was murdered, goes on a hunt through the mean streets of Detroit for the killer. “Narc” was shown at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival where it impressed Tom Cruise enough to prompt his company to buy the film for release through Paramount Pictures. Meanwhile, Liotta was nominated for a 2003 Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. In “John Q.” (2002), he played a media-hungry police chief whose numerous medals shine brightly before the cameras while a factory worker without health insurance (Denzel Washington) holds a hospital emergency room hostage so he get his 10 year-old son a heart transplant.
For “Identity” (2003), Liotta once again played an on-the-edge cop, this time one who is transporting a prisoner (Jake Busey), but gets stuck with a diverse group of people at a rundown Nevada motel one dark and stormy night. The group is then systematically killed, leaving them to figure out why and, more importantly, what they all have in common with one another. After appearing in the Hollywood satire “The Last Shot” (2004), Liotta starred as an alcoholic ex-con who walks into the emergency room with delirium tremens on an experimental real-time episode of “ER” (NBC, 1994- ). He won the 2005 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance.
Back in the feature world, Liotta filmed a slew of independent films, including “Revolver” (2005), playing a crime boss who puts a hit out on a lucky, but terrible poker player (Jason Stratham) and “Slow Burn” (2007), playing an ambitious D.A. trying to take down a gang leader (LL Cool J). Liotta joined the ever-increasing trend of film actors turning to series television when he chose to star in “Smith” (CBS, 2006- ), playing the cold and calculating boss of a heist crew who wants to make a few lost scores before he retires to a normal life with his wife (Virginia Madsen) and kids. But alas, it was not meant to be—CBS ripped the expensive series off the air after airing only four episodes, leaving little to show for the money spent on elaborate set pieces, well-compensated stars and lavish production values.
After reuniting with “Narc” director Joe Carnahan on “Smokin’ Aces” (2006), playing a stalwart FBI agent assigned to protect a sleazy magician (Jeremy Piven) waiting to testify against the Vegas mob, Liotta joined the ensemble cast of “Wild Hogs” (2007), a big, dumb and hugely successful comedy about four down-and-out men (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) going through their respective mid-life crises. The four embark on a freewheeling, cross-country motorcycle trip in order to prove their manhood, but run afoul with the leader of a biker gang (Liotta) set on teaching the wannabes real biker behavior. Despite scores of bad reviews, many of which complained about the bizarre, almost obsessive need of the male leads to constantly prove their heterosexuality onscreen, “Wild Hogs” dominated the box office its opening weekend, taking in almost $40 million and making it the first bona fide hit of 2007.