(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
Ray Liotta Movies Ranked
After exiting soap opera Another World where he had appeared from 1978 to 1981, Ray Liotta got his big break at the movies in 1986’s Something Wild, pursuing Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels all the way to a Golden Globe nomination. Major roles lined up quick for the actor, as he took the lead in family drama Dominick and Eugene and put in the footwork as Field of Dream‘s Shoeless Joe Jackson.
In 1990, Liotta as Henry Hill became the lynchpin of Martin Scorsese’s opus Goodfellas, delivering lines like ‘As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster’ with laconic cool. Liotta became associated with these quietly explosive characters possessing a gift for slippery gab, and he would reliably bring it in a eclectic pool of ensemble and crime movies. Among these include 1997’s underseen Cop Land, the gritty Narc, stylish Smokin’ Aces, Guy Ritchie’s mystical Revolver, darkly comic Killing Them Softly, Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Steven Soderbergh’s No Sudden Move from 2021. Cameos in Muppets Most Wanted and Muppets in Space made sure we didn’t take him too seriously.
Liotta’s close association with Vegas through Goodfellas meant obviously you had to cast him in a Rat Pack biopic someday. Sure enough, he became Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV-movie biopic, co-starring with Joe Mantegna and Don Cheadle. Other popular Liotta movies include John Q, Blow, Identity, and Hannibal. Liotta’s final major role was as Uncle Sal in the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, referring to the New Jersey city where Liotta was born in 1954. —Alex Vo
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