Ray Liotta Net Worth

Ray Liotta's Quotes

• It would be nice to do a movie where I didn't have to choke the girl to get her.
• (when asked why he did the voice of Tommy Vercetti for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)) "For the money."
• Something Wild (1986) was my first movie. I was in an acting class and on a soap opera for three-and-a-half years in New York - I moved to L.A. at 25 and nothing was really going on for like a five-year period. I was still in acting class, I was in class all through Goodfellas (1990) actually, and I talked to some of the guys and they said, "Are you up for this movie, Something Wild?" and I said, "No." But I decided I really wanted to be up for it even though [Jonathan] Demme had already narrowed it down to three people. I'd been to college with Melanie Griffith's then-husband Steven Bauer and I called her up and said, "y'know, can you get me in and I felt weird about it, but here I am, thirty years old and I haven't done anything yet and I'd read the script and felt like I could do that as well as anyone out there so why not me?" She got me in, she insisted that Jonathan see me, and it just worked out with me.
• "Nothing. It's just make-believe. I don't think it's good to personalize it. If you do, it's limiting. The actors that do personalize it are the ones that always seem the same in every movie they do. I don't really look at it in any kind of deep psychological way that I learn something about myself. Aside from taking up the acting challenges, I'm really glad I took on the challenge of playing Sinatra, as scary as it was. I learned somewhat about myself - that I could do it and I knew what was bothering me - the fears that I had." - On what he learns about himself through the characters he plays.
• I wasn't crazy about the way things were going. I wanted to be a little more proactive with my career instead of waiting for something to come to me, so I formed a production company with my wife [Michelle Grace] and a partner, Diane Nabatoff, and changed agents - I really just wanted to clean house and start fresh. The first script I got was Narc (2002) and I really responded to it; it reminded me of a 70s type movie, I really liked the characters, I didn't anticipate the ending. I wanted to go that way and really get proactive with my career - take some control in it and redirect it in a direction that I liked.

Interesting Facts about Ray Liotta

1. Last name is pronounced lee-OH-ta.
2. One of the roles he played while at the University of Miami was as one of the Von Trapp children (Kurt) in the 1974 production of "The Sound of Music." Also appearing in that production was Gail Edwards.
3. Attended Union High School in Union, New Jersey. Was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame during the 1992-1993 school year.
4. Adopted when 6 months old.
5. His best friend is Josh Taylor.
6. Worked in a cemetery while he was at college.
7. Became a father for the first time at age 44, when his then-wife Michelle Grace gave birth to their daughter Karsen Liotta in December 1998.
8. In Blow (2001), Liotta plays the father of real-life character George Jung (Johnny Depp), who reportedly was responsible for 85 percent of all cocaine distributed in the U.S. in the late 1970s/early '80s. Therefore, Liotta's son in Blow (2001) was likely distributing cocaine to Henry Hill, the real-life character Liotta played in Goodfellas (1990).
9. British rock band Linoleum recorded a song called "Ray Liotta" (on their 1997 album 'Dissent').
10. Played baseball player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989). Ex-wife, Michelle Grace is also the ex-wife of baseball player Mark Grace.
11. He gained about 20 pounds and wore small lifts to appear even more imposing and bearlike while playing Henry Oak in Narc (2002).
12. In contrast to his intense, often evil characters, he is by all accounts a nice, well-adjusted family man off screen.
13. Is an avid supporter of English Premiership football team Tottenham Hotspur and has been in the crowd for a few matches at White Hart Lane, sometimes giving pre-match interviews on the touchline.
14. Director Antoine Fuqua wanted to cast Liotta in American Gangster (2007) before the film was put on hold and Fuqua was replaced.
15. Has appeared in films directed by Jonathan Demme (Something Wild (1986)) and by his nephew Ted Demme (Blow (2001)). He also appeared in Hannibal (2001), a sequel to Jonathan Demme's film The Silence of the Lambs (1991). So he has appeared in Demme films and a Lecter film, but not one that was both.
16. Ray's adoptive father was the son of Italian immigrants, and Ray's adoptive mother was the daughter of Scottish parents. In a 2001 interview with Smoke Magazine, Liotta said that his biological parents' ancestry is "mostly Scottish with a bit of Italian." In 2006, he tracked down his biological mother and learned that his biological father was not Italian at all.
17. When he was six months old, he was adopted from a Newark, New Jersey, orphanage by Mary Miller (Edgar) and Alfred Liotta, the owners of a chain of automotive-supply stores. One of his earliest memories is of helping his parents pick out Linda, his sister, at an orphanage when he was three years old.
18. Was Tim Burton's first choice to play Harvey Dent in Batman (1989), but turned it down to do Goodfellas (1990) instead.
19. Has a nephew, also named Ray Liotta, who plays on a farm team for the Kansas City Royals.
20. Claims that he only did Operation Dumbo Drop (1995) for the money.