R.I.P. RAY LIOTTA: FIVE OF HIS GREATEST PERFORMANCES

As with all sudden passings, the death of Ray Liotta, aged 67, puts a melancholy focus on his career. What one finds is a catalogue of characters that, borne of the right material and guided by a director who could grasp the actor’s unique physicality and energy, is unlike any in Hollywood’s history.

He was never not working, frankly, with dozens of television roles, from early work in soaps like Another World to guesting on hits like E.R. (for which he won an  Emmy) and Hannah Montana (pictured, below) to hardman roles in hits like Shades of Blue, with Jennifer Lopez; as an in-demand voice actor and narrator, notably the landmark 2015 docu-series, The Making of the Mob; and, in a testament to his stature in the industry, seven credits in which he plays ‘Ray Liotta’.

It is inconceivable that any ‘listicle’ could encompass a film career like Liotta’s. He was great in films you won’t see below, like Ted Demme’s Blow (2001), with Johnny Depp; the thriller Identity (2003), starring John Cusack; Narc (2002), for director Joe Carnahan; and, perhaps most adored of all, his ‘Shoeless Joe Jackson’ in the American classic, Field of Dreams (1989). “You want to do as many different genres as you can,” he told Long Island Weekly in 2018. “I’ve done movies with The Muppets. I did good guys and bad guys. I did a movie with an elephant. I decided that I was here to try different parts and do different things. That’s what a career should be.” 

The five selected are the ones that defined for us who Ray Liotta was so good at being on-screen - a riveting presence, whether as a tightly-coiled force of dangerous energy or as a gentle character of values and strength.

GOODFELLAS (1990) | Director: Martin Scorsese | Also starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesce, Lorraine Bracco | The film roared into the public consciousness as soon as it hit theatres; a work that felt like Martin Scorsese had been building towards his whole career, that Joe Pesci was born to dominate, that De Niro had in him from Day 1. And out front of it all was Ray Liotta, going scene-for-scene with the greatest actors of his generation, as made-man turned stool pigeon, ‘Henry Hill’. He was high on Scorsese’s list of leads, but Warner Bros weren’t convinced; at the Venice Film Festival spruiking The Last Temptation of Christ, Liotta fronted a heavily-bodyguarded Scorsese about the role. Scorsese told GQ in 2010, ““Ray approached me in the lobby and the bodyguards moved toward him. And [Liotta] had an interesting way of reacting. He held his ground, but made them understand he was no threat. I liked his behaviour at that moment. I thought,’Oh, he understands that kind of situation.’”

SOMETHING WILD (1986) | Director: Jonathan Demme | Also starring: Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels | Scorsese wanted Liotta for his gangster epic because he had seen the actor’s electrically terrifying turn as obsessive ex-con husband ‘Ray Sinclair’ in Jonathan Demme’s pitch-black comedy-thriller. Melanie Griffith pushed hard for her friend to be cast in the role that would define his on-screen persona for the next two decades. “I had offers for every crazy guy around,” Liotta told The Los Angeles Times in 1990. His performance earned Supporting Actor nominations from the Golden Globes, New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics, and won him the Boston Film Critics trophy.

DOMINICK & EUGENE (1988) | Director: Robert M. Young | Also starring: Tom Hulce, Jamie Lee Curtis | Liotta was determined not to be typecast as Hollywood’s short-fuse psychopath and took on the role of brother and caregiver Eugene to Tom Hulce’s intellectually disabled Dominick in veteran director Robert M. Young’s tearjerker. “The two leading actors do a superb job of bringing these characters to life,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times. “Mr. Liotta makes Gino a touchingly devoted figure, a man willing to sacrifice almost anything for his brother’s welfare.” Liotta’s sweeter side was sorely underutilised throughout his career; apart from Field of Dreams, also check out Article 99 (1992), opposite Kiefer Sutherland; Corinna, Corinna (1994), with Whoopi Goldberg; and the Disney romp, Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), for Australian director Simon Wincer. 

TURBULENCE (1997) | Director: Robert Butler | Also starring: Lauren Holly, Brendan Gleeson | Of course, no one could bring the crazy like Liotta, as his role as ‘Ryan Weaver’ in Turbulence displayed. This ‘slasher on an airplane’ slice of B-movie giddiness was a critical and commercial dud upon release, but went on to find an appreciative home video audience; it would be one of the most rented VHS releases of the late ‘90s and spawn two direct-to-video sequels. Liotta goes all in on Weaver’s villainy, putting co-star Lauren Holly through the emotional and physical wringer in their scenes together. He did psycho-stalker like few actors ever have - see also Unlawful Entry (1992), opposite Kurt Russell; the barely-released Control (2004), with Willem Dafoe; and, in Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (2012), alongside Brad Pitt. 

THE RAT PACK (2002) | Director: Rob Cohen | Also starring: Joe Mantegna, Don Cheadle | This made-for-TV period epic was commissioned in the early days of HBO, a bold statement from the cabler that they were going to be front-and-centre of a new type of prestige television. Liotta delivered a now iconic performance as Frank Sinatra; despite some critics noting he neither looks nor sounds like ‘The Chairman of The Board’, Liotta imbues one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures with the gravitas needed to convey the vastness of the entertainer’s impact on 1950’s America. His scenes opposite William Petersen, playing the charismatic young President John F. Kennedy, are some of the best in either actor’s career.