We were all shocked this morning by the unexpected passing of Ray Liotta. The Goodfellas actor was just 67 years old when he died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film, Dangerous Waters. Friends and colleagues immediately paid tribute to Ray Liotta, including his Goodfellas co-stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Lorraine Bracco, as well as Kevin Costner, the star of Field of Dreams.
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Joe Pesci said, “God is a Goodfella, and so is Ray.” In his own statement, Robert De Niro added, “I was very saddened to learn of Ray’s passing. He is way too young to have left us. May he rest in peace.” Lorraine Bracco, who played his wife in Goodfellas, said, “I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. 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.“
Martin Scorsese, Ray Liotta’s director on Goodfellas, wrote: “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. 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.“
The Sopranos creator David Chase, who co-wrote and produced The Many Saints of Newark, also paid tribute to Ray Liotta, and his dual role in the film. “This is a massive, unexpected shock,” Chase wrote. “I have been an admirer of Ray’s work since I saw him in ‘Something Wild,’ a movie he wrenched by the tail. I was so glad he worked on ‘The Many Saints of Newark.’ I believed strongly in my heart that he could play that double role. He created two distinctly separate characters and each performance was phenomenal. Ray was also a very warm and humorous person. A really superior actor. We all felt we lucked out having him on that movie.”
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