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On May 26, Ray Liotta passed away at the age of 67, and celebrities like Seth Rogen and Jamie Lee Curtis paid tribute to him soon afterwards. Days after his passing, Liotta’s fiancée, Jacy Nittolo, went on social media to honor the man she intended to marry, calling him the “most beautiful person inside and out” she’d ever known. Now Martin Scorsese, who directed Liotta in 1990’s Goodfellas, has penned his own heartfelt tribute to the actor.
While Ray Liotta put together an impressive body of movie and TV work over his 40+ years of acting, ranging from his time on Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner to starring alongside Jennifer Lopez in the NBC series Shades of Blue, he was arguably best known for playing Henry Hill in Goodfellas, which co-starred Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. In an op-ed he wrote for The Guardian, Martin Scorsese recounted the story behind how Liotta was selected to star in Goodfellas, noting how the part required someone who could be “disarming,” “dangerous” and “vulnerable.” Looking back, Scorsese realized he wanted Liotta to play Henry after meeting him at The Last Temptation of Christ’s world premiere in Venice, and then the filmmaker showered the following praise onto the late actor:
The word ‘fearless’ is used quite often to describe actors, and with good reason: actors need to be fearless. They have to jump in and just go, and they have to stumble and fail and risk appearing ridiculous as they’re finding their way into a role. That’s just part of the work. On Goodfellas, we were working improvisationally in most scenes, and many members of the team had known each other and worked together for years, including my mother and my father. Into that walked the new guy, Ray Liotta, and he never missed a beat. It felt like we’d worked together for years.
