Goodfellas star Lorraine Bracco joined her Hollywood colleagues in mourning the sudden death of Ray Liotta. The actor died in his sleep while in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the movie Dangerous Waters. He was 67.
“I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray,” Bracco tweeted, adding a recent picture of the two stars. “I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta.”
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Liotta’s death was first reported by Deadline. A source close to Liotta told TMZ there was no foul play suspected or anything suspicious about his death. His fiancee, Jacy Nittolo, was with him during the film shoot. Liotta and Nittola got engaged in December 2020. Liotta is also survived by his daughter, Karsen Liotta, from his marriage to Michelle Grace.
Liotta made his acting debut in the late 1970s on Another World, which led to other television roles. In 1989, he played the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson in the beloved Kevin Costner classic Field of Dreams. The next year, he earned his breakout role as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Bracco, 67, starred as Henry’s wife Karen Hill, a role that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Bracco and Liotta never made another movie together, but the two spoke fondly of their experiences on Goodfellas in the three decades since its release. “I’m really proud and happy that people are still talking about this movie. It’s unbelievable,” Bracco told USA Today in September 2020. “Worse things could happen to a girl, for sure.”
Liotta and Bracco also have Sopranos connections. Last year, Liotta starred in The Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark. Meanwhile, Bracco had a major recurring role on The Sopranos as Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. Bracco told USA Today she was offered the part of Tony’s wife Carmela, but she wasn’t interested in being a mob wife character again.
Liotta’s death sent shockwaves through Hollywood, especially since he was one of the busiest actors on the planet. He just finished shooting the upcoming Apple TV+ series Black Bird and the movie El Tonto. He was set to star in Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear. At the time of his death, he was making Dangerous Waters, co-starring Eric Dane. “His work as an actor showed his complexity as a human being,” Jamie Lee Curtis, who made Dominick and Eugene with Liotta, tweeted. “A gentle man. So sad to hear.”
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Los Angeles, CA – 1981: Richard Romanus promotional photo for the ABC tv series 'Strike Force'. (Photo by American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images)
