Ray Liotta was an amazing actor. Most film fans remember him for his unforgettable performance as Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990) Liotta died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters. He was just 67 years old.
I first took note of him in Something Wild (1986), a rather undefinable, quirky, action / screwball comedy / romance film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels. It has a cool, eclectic soundtrack that sort of invented art of the pop music soundtrack. Few films, before or since, can equal its diversity of selections from unique artists, genres, and countries of origin. Liotta makes quite an impression, and he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
New Jersey born Liotta’s filmography is loaded with intense performances as a gangster or a cop in thrillers, dramas, noir, and crime capers, with titles like Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), Revolver (2005), Slow Burn (2005), The Iceman (2012), yet he can be effective playing softer characters.
My new interest in Liotta was reconfirmed by his performance in the sweet and sour Dominick And Eugene (1988) which has Tom Hulce as Dominick and Liotta as his brother, Eugene. Dominick is mentally impaired from a head injury while Eugene is in training to become a physician. Their mother is dead, and their father “went away”. Dominick supports the two of them by collecting garage. The conflict comes from when Eugene is accepted at Stanford Medical School. Hulce’s Dominick is childlike and gullible, and he is repeatedly bullied by his coworker and residents on his garbage route. Eugene must intervene to keep Dominick from being harmed or from harming himself. Eugene is faced with a dilemma: he must either give up his dream of attending Stanford to stay in Pittsburgh and watch over Dominick or uproot his brother from the home and job he loves and move him to California, something that would be traumatic for his brother. The theme of devotion, self-sacrifice, and brotherly love makes for a memorable film.
Next, Liotta knocked it out of the park portraying real-life baseball legend “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in Field Of Dreams (1989). I wasn’t expecting to like this movie when I first saw it in a theatre when it was first released. But like most people, loved it. It is a timeless, charming film, a delightful blend of the blind-fate story and the feel-good charm of Frank Capra. It is beautiful to look at and well-acted by the entire cast. If you are one of the few who has never seen it, Field Of Dreams is about a man who hears a voice and turns his family farmland into a baseball field. It lands on the themes of family, redemption and following your dreams. There are some delightfully poignant, tear-inducing moments. The performances are great; a very dignified Kevin Costner gives one of his best performances, Amy Madigan is touching as his loyal wife, James Earl Jones is convincing as a reclusive writer, while Liotta, Frank Whaley and the great Burt Lancaster distinctively and solidly represent the spirit world.
The captivating Corrina, Corrina (1994) has Liotta as a man who recently lost his wife and has his daughter to take care of, who was too sad and heartbroken to talk to anyone after her mother’s death. Liotta tries to find a suitable caretaker for his daughter so he can go back to work. Corrina Washington (Whoopi Goldberg) gets hired. What the family weren’t expecting was for Corrina to bring magic back into their lives. An endearing little treasure, Corrina, Corrina is filled with heart and laughter, that’s sure to send your spirits soaring. Goldberg is terrific in the title role. She plays the kind of Black maid rarely seen in that era. When I first saw Corrina, Corrina, I could only think that Goldberg was giving payback for all those years of movie servitude for Black actresses. It is also the final film performance by Don Ameche; he died shortly after filming was completed.
The sort of mistitled A Rumor Of Angels (2002) has no discussion of religion, yet the film looks at the subject of death and dying, its effect on the living, and the notion that you can communicate after death. The film has a message that listening to what living people have to say is important by gently reminding us of the importance of seniors, and that sometimes it takes a generation gap to facilitate communication. This focus is helped with strong performances by both Vanessa Redgrave, Trevor Morgan and Liotta.
This is a nice little film, based on a true story, about an untrained, struggling young artist who finds a mentor to help him understand what painting, and life, is all about. Local Color (2006) has splendid performances from a wonderful cast that includes Armin-Mueller-Stahl as the older, established, reclusive artist, and Trevor Morgan as the young man, plus Samantha Mathis, Diana Scarwid, Charles Durning, a very funny Ron Perlmen as a pompous, gay art critic, and Liotta as the young artist’s frustrated father.
The uneven, but enjoyable HBO made-for-television film The Rat Pack (1998) stars Liotta as very credible Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., and Angus Macfadyen as Peter Lawford.
I also need to include Liotta’s unforgettable performance as a ruthless, very effective divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (2019), which you can rewatch on Netflix.
Black Bird is Liotta’s final television performance. Based on the 2010 autobiographical novel In With The Devil: A Fallen Hero, A Serial Killer, and A Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene, it will premiere on July 8, 2022 on Apple TV+. Besides Liotta, it stars Taron Egerton and Greg Kinnear.
Also coming up is Cocaine Bear, a thriller directed and produced by Elizabeth Banks, it stars Liotta, Keri Russell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Margo Martindale. It is based on the true story of an American black bear that ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. It will be the first film to be released after Liotta’s death. Cocaine Bear is scheduled for February 2023. There are three other Liotta films in post-production, plus Dangerous Waters, the movie he was filming when he left us.
