Ray Liotta was just posthumously nominated for an Emmy award. Liotta picked up a nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie category for his role as Big Jim Keene in the Apple TV+ crime show Black Bird. The honor comes more than a year after Liotta’s death in May 2022.
Notably, Liotta’s Black Bird co-star Paul Walter Hauser is also nominated. The remaining Emmy nominees are Murray Bartlett for Welcome To Chippendales (Hulu), Richard Jenkins for Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix), Jesse Plemons for Love & Death (HBO), and both Joseph Lee and Young Mazino for Beef (FX). This is Liotta’s second Emmy nomination. In 2004, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for a guest role on ER.
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According to reports, Liotta died in his sleep on May 26 while in the Dominican Republic. He was on-location filming a new movie, Dangerous Waters. An autopsy report later concluded that Liotta’s cause of death was respiratory insufficiency, pulmonary edema, and heart failure. Additionally, atherosclerosis was cited as an underlying issue. Earlier this year, he was posthumously recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with his daughter Karsen standing in for her late father at the ceremony.
In addition to his TV work, Liotta starred in numerous high-profile films, including Goodfellas and Something Wild, the latter of which earned him multiple award nominations. Field of Dreams, Cop Land, Hannibal, Narc, Killing Them Softly, Marriage Story, and The Many Saints of Newark are just a handful of other notable films from Liotta’s lengthy repertoire. Martin Scorsese, who directed Liotta in Goodfellas, paid tribute to the fallen film star, telling PEOPLE, “I’m absolutely shocked and devastated by the sudden, unexpected death of Ray Liotta. He was so uniquely gifted, so adventurous, so courageous as an actor.”
Scorsese continued, “Playing Henry Hill in Goodfellas was a tall order, because the character had so many different facets, so many complicated layers, and Ray was in almost every scene of a long, tough shoot. He absolutely amazed me, and I’ll always be proud of the work we did together on that picture. My heart goes out to his loved ones, and it aches for his loss, way too early.” Liotta’s Goodfellas costars Robert De Niro and Paul Sorvino also issued statements to PEOPLE, with De Niro writing, “I was very saddened to learn of Ray’s passing. He is way too young to have left us.” Sorvino added, “Ray was a terrific actor and a ‘goodfella’ in the best sense of the word. He was great to work with and a good friend. I’m really going to miss him.”
