Who is Ray Liotta of CBS Smith
Ray Liotta was born Raymond Julian Vicimarli on December 18, 1954 in Newark New Jersey.
Six months after he was born, he was adopted by Alfred Liotta (president of a local Democratic club) and Mary (an appointed township clerk). Both of them ran for local office but were not successful. Liotta graduated from the Union High School in Union, New Jersey in 1973. In 1992, he was inducted into their Hall of Fame. He studied acting at the University of Miami and performed at the university’s Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.
Ray Liotta’s career started when he was portraying the role as Joey Perrini on the daytime program “Another World” from 1978 to 1981. His portrayal as an ex-con in the 1986 movie “Something Wild” earned him a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous role however was playing real-life mobster Henry Hill in the 1990s film “Goodfellas”, an Academy Awards-nominated movie for Best Picture.
In 2002, Ray Liotta provided the voice of the fictional character Thomas “Tommy” Vercetti for the videogame “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”. Last year (2005), Ray Liotta earned an Emmy Award as “Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series” for portraying the role of Charlie Metcalf in an episode of the hit TV series “ER”. Most recently, CBS has announced that Liotta will star in a new television series entitled “Smith” set to debut this fall.
Ray Liotta’s movie career dates back to the early 1980s, and one of his first movies was entitled “The Lonely Lady” in 1983 opposite Pia Zadora and Walter Thornton. In “Operation Dumbo Drop” (1995), Liotta played the role of an army officer opposite Danny Glover. In the film “Turbulence” (1997), Liotta starred as a serial killer who is being transported with another prisoner on a commercial Boeing 747. Also one of his memorable role was in “Hannibal”, which starred Anthony Hopkins, and where Liotta played the character of Paul Krendler, an agent of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ray Liotta was married to actress Michelle Grace from February 1997 to 2004. They met on the set of the television movie “The Rat Pack”, wherein Liotta played Frank Sinatra while Grace played Judy Campbell. They have a daughter, Karsen, who was born in December 1998. He is described in Yahoo! Movies as “A lead actor with piercing blue eyes, pockmarked skin, and a wicked laugh, who gives the overall impression of a 1950s doo-wop singer crossed with a psychopath..”
