Ray Liotta Biography

Actor. Born on December 18, 1955 in Newark, New Jersey.After graduating from the University of Miami, Liotta moved to New York and landed his first role in a TV commercial while accompanying a friend to a casting agency. He soon found work as Joey Perrini on the daytime drama Another World, and after working in television for a few years, he moved to Los Angeles.

After struggling to find work in Hollywood, Liotta was ready to call it quits when he was cast in the role of a crazed ex-con husband opposite Melanie Griffith in Something Wild. The portrayal won him critical and popular acclaim, and he followed the performance with an entirely different role, as a med student caring for his mentally challenged brother in 1988's Dominick and Eugene. Though best known for his on-the-edge tough-guy characterizations in films like Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas (1992) and No Escape (1994), Liotta received some of his most positive audience feedback for his likeable portrayal of luckless ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson in the 1989 megahit Field of Dreams.

Established as one of the most magnetic character actors in Hollywood, Liotta delivered numerous memorable performances throughout the 1990s, including Unlawful Entry, Corrina, Corrina and the Disney movie Operation Dumbo Drop. Recently, he has opted toward more hard-edged roles in such films as Blow and John Q. Liotta will next star as an ambitious district attorney in the independent thriller Slow Burn.

© 2008 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.