{"id":1494128,"date":"2022-05-27T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1494128"},"modified":"2022-05-27T08:02:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T12:02:11","slug":"goodfellas-star-ray-liotta-passes-away-just-as-his-career-was-catching-a-second-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/goodfellas-star-ray-liotta-passes-away-just-as-his-career-was-catching-a-second-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Goodfellas\u2019 Star Ray Liotta Passes Away Just As His Career Was Catching A Second Wind"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgoodfellas-star-ray-liotta-passes-away-just-as-his-career-was-catching-a-second-wind%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1494128&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-26-at-9.18.14-PM-1024x589-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cWe ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it\u2019s all over. And that\u2019s the hardest part. Today, everything is different. There\u2019s no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. Can\u2019t even get decent food. Right after I got here I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I\u2019m an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><cite><em>-Henry Hill<\/em><\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When most people remember Ray Liotta, they think of his portrayal of mobster turned FBI informant in \u201cGoodfellas,\u201d the movie in which he delivered those lines. His amazing portrayal of the violent criminal turned him into a star, a status that had thus far eluded him despite critical recognition for his roles in \u201cSomething Wild\u201d and \u201cField of Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While I am amongst those who will always remember him for that role, I have another memory of Liotta. It was in 2018 and my cable stopped working properly during a commercial for Chantix, for which Liotta was a pitchman. I <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rcromwell4\/status\/1069437685280972806\">joked at the time<\/a>, \u201cMy cable froze and Ray Liotta was staring at me for like 30 minutes. It changed me, man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although I wasn\u2019t actually scarred by the experience, the fact that it even occurred was a sign of the actor\u2019s fading star. He\u2019d gone from critically acclaimed newcomer to his breakout performance in \u201cGoodfellas\u201d to a smoking cessation drug spokesman.<\/p>\n<p>Born December 18, 1954, in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in Union, New Jersey, Liotta fell into the world of acting. In high school, a drama teacher convinced him to perform in a school play. After high school, he went to the University of Miami, where he studied acting and earned a bachelor of fine arts before beginning his career.<\/p>\n<p>Why did a Jersey boy travel so far south for school? In <a href=\"https:\/\/m.imdb.com\/name\/nm0000501\/quotes\">his words<\/a>, \u201cI went to the University of Miami because, basically, at that time, if you had a pulse, you could get in. I was only there because my dad said: \u2018Go to college, take whatever you want, just go out and experience things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While there, he honed his craft with a professor known as Buckets. He also took classes with Steven Bauer, who would marry Melanie Griffith. That connection proved crucial to his role in \u201cSomething Wild,\u201d as he was able to call Griffith and convince her to get him an audition with director Jonathan Demme.<\/p>\n<p>From there, things started going generally uphill for him, at least for a while. After appearing in a number of well-performing and well-received films such as \u201cUnlawful Entry\u201d and \u201cBlow,\u201d the number of critical failures began increasing. In 2002, he voiced a character in the video game \u201cGrand Theft Auto,\u201d a job he said he took \u201cfor the money.\u201d In 2004, he appeared in a direct-to-DVD release. In 2007, he returned to video games, that time portraying a wizard in a live-action rendition of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.looper.com\/876217\/the-video-game-movie-you-forgot-starred-ray-liotta\/\">Dungeon Seige<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From there, things <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ray_Liotta_filmography\">didn\u2019t improve<\/a>, at least not until last year, which saw the release of Steven Soderbergh\u2019s \u201cNo Sudden Move,\u201d a crime period drama with a score of 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. 2021 also brought us \u201cThe Many Saints of Newark,\u201d a prequel to \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d in which Liotta portrayed twin brothers, one of whom was the mentor to a young Tony Soprano.<\/p>\n<p>There are still at least two films featuring Liotta to be released. \u201cCocaine Bear,\u201d scheduled to come out in 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cocaine_Bear\">looks interesting<\/a>. \u201cEl Toro,\u201d a comedy by the \u201cAlways Sunny in Philadelphia\u201d actor Charlie Day, has a stellar cast and a solid premise. There are three other upcoming movies listed on his Wikipedia filmography, but only \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/wegotthiscovered.com\/news\/what-was-the-latest-about-dangerous-waters-the-movie-ray-liotta-was-filming-when-he-died\/\">Dangerous Waters<\/a>,\u201d the film he was working on when he passed, seems to be far enough along to potentially include Liotta.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Liotta\u2019s career, despite the doldrums that led him to freezing on my screen during a Chantix commercial, was experiencing a resurgence. Where that resurgence would have led, we will never know, but one thing we do know is that Ray Liotta, unlike Henry Hill, was never a schnook. Rest in peace.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Richard Cromwell is a writer and senior contributor at The Federalist. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife, three daughters, and two crazy dogs. Co-host of the podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/coffeeandcochon.com\/%E2%80%9C\">Coffee &#038; Cochon<\/a>, you can find him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jrichardcromwell%E2%80%9C\">Facebook<\/a><br \/>\nand <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rcromwell4\">Twitter<\/a>, though you should probably avoid using social media.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it\u2019s all over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1494128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1494128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1494128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1494128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1494128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}