Ray Liotta RIP
When I learned that Ray Liotta had died in his sleep at 67 in Costa Rica I reflexively yelled, “No!” then felt a little bit silly about my response to the news. After all, it’s not like I’ve worked with Liotta, or spent joyful years studying his life’s work the way I have with “Weird Al” Yankovic, John Travolta or Nicolas Cage.
But the more I thought about Liotta, the more sense that “No!” of sad, angry denial made. I had the best possible introduction to Liotta. As part of my adolescence-long study of which movies had naked boobs in them I rented Something Wild from the local video store hoping for some Melanie Griffith nudity.
I don’t remember whether Griffith is actually naked or not in Something Wild. That’s more the purview of the gentlemen over at Mr. Skin. What I do remember is being absolutely blown away by Ray Liotta’s star-making performance as a violent degenerate who pops back into the life of an ex-girlfriend with murder and malice on his poisoned mind.
My frame of reference was much smaller back then but I remember thinking that this was no mere breakout turn from a future star: this was literally one of the greatest film performances of all time.
I’ve seen a lot more movies since then but my estimation of Liotta’s performance in Something Wild remains the same: it is one for the ages, up there with Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.
In Something Wild Liotta is sexy and dangerous and darkly funny but more than anything he is INTENSE. That would go on to be Liotta’s trademark as an actor: pummeling intensity.
How intense was Liotta? In Goodfellas Liotta acted opposite Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci at their most iconic, mercurial and brooding and Liotta’s feverish intensity still stood out.
Liotta followed up Something Wild with Field of Dreams, a film I remember loving as a child but have never revisited. Back when I was into sports I was a big White Sox fan so it was nifty seeing him play one of the greatest and certainly saddest White Sox legends of all time.
Then came Goodfellas, one of the greatest, most beloved and influential movies ever made. Liotta may not have won the Academy Award or had the flashiest role but he was unmistakably the star of Goodfellas.
It’s the role of a lifetime in part because it is a spectacularly challenging role, particularly for an actor who hadn’t made that many films at that point. Liotta is playing a real person who does horrible things and is exceedingly unlikable in a movie culture where protagonists are expected to be heroic and likable, even if they’re mobsters. Liotta’s character ages decades, spends much of the film very convincingly coked out of his gourd and delivers wall-to-wall narration, at least some of which is delivered directly to camera.
Needless to say, Liotta cleared all of those tall hurdles and became the rugged center of a masterpiece that transcended film long ago and is now a crucial piece of Americana, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Goodfellas made Liotta something more than an actor. He became an icon, a meme, a gif, a series of endlessly recycled catchphrases.
The starring roles that followed weren’t anywhere near as juicy or auspicious as Henry Hill. What is? But after a few too many Operation Dumbo Drops he pivoted very successfully to a career as a constantly employed character actor who specialized in playing bad guys and cops in television and in film.
Even when the movies weren’t good or memorable, Liotta’s roles often were. Hannibal, for example, is largely forgettable despite the delirious excess of its violence but the image of Liotta’s doomed character obliviously eating his own brain is one that will stick with you forever. And Bee Movie was more meme than movie but the gag of Ray Liotta having his own honey line stood out because it is so gloriously out of character for the consummate brooding thespian.
Wild Hogs is a terrible movie that wastes lots of great actors but as the head of the rival motorcycle gang Liotta delivers a strangely nuanced performance that makes him more sympathetic and multi-dimensional than the ostensible heroes. Then there’s his debut in the notorious melodrama in upcoming Fractured Mirror 2.0 The Lonely Lady. It’s an infamously terrible show-business remembered largely for a horrifying scene where the heroine is assaulted with a garden hose. In a sign of what was to come, Liotta was the one wielding that garden utensil ominously and delivered a genuinely great performance in a spectacularly terrible motion picture.
Looking over Liotta’s filmography I realized that I’d seen a lot of his movies. That’s both because I’m a fan and seek out films with him in them but also because the man worked constantly in all different kinds of projects, including multiple collaborations with Uwe Boll, the Cancer movie 50 Cent delusionally thought would be his ticket to Oscar glory and The Last Shot, a sly and very funny show-biz comedy I recently wrote up as an entry for the Fractured Mirror book.
Liotta got off to an amazing start with the one-two-three punch with Something Wild, Field of Dreams and Goodfellas and then stuck around for the next three decades, a ubiquitous and beloved staple of American film and TV.
Now he’s gone too soon but he leaves behind a rich legacy that I would like to honor by making July Ray Liotta month here at the Happy Place.
What would you like me to cover for it? Me being me, it helps if it’s at least semi-obscure and I haven’t written about it yet.
The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s first non-"Weird Al” Yankovic-themed book is out! And it’s only 16.50, shipping, handling and taxes included, 30 bucks for two books, domestic only!
PLUS, for a limited time only, get a FREE copy of The Weird A-Coloring to Al when you buy any other book in the Happy Place store!
Buy The Joy of Trash, The Weird Accordion to Al and the The Weird Accordion to Al in both paperback and hardcover and The Weird A-Coloring to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Colored-In Special Edition signed from me personally (recommended) over at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Or you can buy The Joy of Trash here and The Weird A-Coloring to Al here and The Weird Accordion to Al here
Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace We just added a bunch of new tiers and merchandise AND a second daily blog just for patrons!
Alternately you can buy The Weird Accordion to Al, signed, for just 19.50, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here.
I make my living exclusively through book sales and Patreon so please support independent media and one man’s dream and kick in a shekel or two!