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Goodfellas star Ray Liotta
Photo: ROBYN BECK / AFP
Ray Liotta wrote film history with a single role: His portrayal of mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's epic film GoodFellas (1990) is the furious portrait of a man who, even as a child, dreamed of being a gangster, and as an adult needs to experience what that really means.
Liotta plays Hill with high energy and at times terrifyingly violent, but for all his dubious qualities, makes him a hero that the viewer can walk through the story with.
The US actor then got leading roles in action films such as »Turbulence«, but he did not become a big Hollywood star.
Maybe he seemed a bit too crude for that.
But he enriched many films and series with dazzling performances.
In 2005 he received an Emmy for his portrayal of a terminally ill man in an episode of the series "Emergency Room".
Now Ray Liotta has died, according to his spokeswoman "completely surprising" in his sleep.
He was in the Dominican Republic for filming.
praise/dpa
