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Martin Scorsese is paying tribute to his Goodfellas star Ray Liotta.
The Emmy Award-winning actor died in his sleep within the Dominican Republic, PEOPLE confirmed Thursday. He was engaged to fiancée Jacy Nittolo, and he was dad to daughter Karsen, 23, with ex-wife Michelle Grace.
Liotta might be finest recognized for taking part in real-life mobster Henry Hill within the 1990 Oscar-winning basic. Broadly thought of one of many biggest movies of all time, the gangster epic acquired six Academy Award nominations and one win.
RELATED: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lorraine Bracco, Taron Egerton and Extra React to Ray Liotta’s Dying: ‘Shattered’
Scorsese, 79, remembered the actor in a shifting assertion to PEOPLE Thursday, saying, “I am completely shocked and devastated by the sudden, sudden dying of Ray Liotta. He was so uniquely gifted, so adventurous, so brave as an actor.”
Continued the legendary director: “Taking part in Henry Hill in Goodfellas was a tall order, as a result of the character had so many various sides, so many difficult layers, and Ray was in nearly each scene of a protracted, robust shoot. He completely amazed me, and I will all the time be pleased with the work we did collectively on that image. My coronary heart goes out to his family members, and it aches for his loss, means too early.”
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Lorraine Bracco, who starred alongside Liotta in Goodfellas, stated she was “totally shattered” by the information of Liotta’s dying on Thursday.
“I may be wherever on the planet & folks will come up & inform me their favourite film is Goodfellas,” she shared on Twitter alongside a photograph of her and Liotta. “Then they all the time ask what was the perfect a part of making that film. My response has all the time been the identical…Ray Liotta.”
RELATED: Inside Ray Liotta’s Romance with Fiancée Jacy Nittolo — and How His Daughter Set Them Up: ‘Love of My Life’
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Goodfellas costars Robert De Niro and Paul Sorvino additionally shared their condolences after Liotta’s passing in separate statements to PEOPLE.
“I used to be very saddened to be taught of Ray’s passing. He’s means too younger to have left us,” De Niro stated.
Sorvino shared, “Ray was a terrific actor and a ‘goodfella’ in the perfect sense of the phrase. He was nice to work with and good friend. I am actually going to overlook him.”
RELATED VIDEO: Remembering Goodfellas Actor Ray Liotta
Liotta was as busy as ever within the years main as much as his dying, not too long ago showing within the Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark and the Amazon Prime collection Hanna. Plus he was at the moment filming the film Harmful Waters.
Liotta spoke to PEOPLE in November about how his character differed from the tough-guy roles he performed in films like Goodfellas. “I’ve by no means been in a combat in any respect, aside from throughout sports activities, and that is simply pushing and goofy child stuff,” he stated on the time.
He added of his profession, “It is bizarre how this enterprise works, as a result of I’ve positively had a profession that is up and down. For some motive, I have been busier this yr than I’ve in all of the years that I have been doing this. And I nonetheless really feel I am not there but. I simply suppose there’s much more.”
