Ray Liotta, A Good Fellow

 News broke that actor Ray Liotta, age 67, passed away in his sleep while on location to shoot a new film. Ray Liotta, a fine actor with riveting eyes, a distinct East Coast voice and a face that looked like he occasionally washed parts of it with sandpaper instead of soap. He played baseball legend "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in 1989's FIELD OF DREAMS and followed that his performance as gangster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's GOODFELLAS. That gangster role shot Liotta's film career up to a new height.  Although he became well known for the Scorsese film, my personal favorite Liotta performance is in a romantic comedy called CORINNA, CORRINA. In this breezy 1994 movie, he starred as widower commercial jingle songwriter who hires a housekeeper who can also take care of his sweet, lonely little girl. The housekeeper brightens his household -- and his life.

I loved Liotta's work -- especially when did a comedy like the aging biker John Travolta movie, WILD HOGS. You have to watch through the closing credits on that one.

Ray Liotta gave me on of the kindest, most memorable moments I ever experienced on TV. After my wonderful 3 years of on-air work for VH1 were done, I did some guest host work on CNBC and, in 1992, I hosted a syndicated month-long summer replacement game show. Also in 1992, I was approached by WNBC local news executives to be the entertainment reporter and third member of a 3-person host team for a new local live weekend morning news program that was in the work to premiere in the fall of 1992. I took the job. But, once my employment started, I felt a definite wall of racial exclusion. Instead of being the entertainment reporter in the studio, I was assigned to be the man-on-the-street doing live segments from street fairs, food festivals and such. When I told the show's producer that I took the job because I was told that I'd be doing film reviews, she replied "I don't think you have the skills to do film reviews." 

I began my professional TV career in 1980 as the weekly film critic on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate. During those four years, I also did print reviews and I was contacted by Chicago PBS to audition to be half of the new film review duo when Siskel & Ebert left PBS Chicago to do their show for Disney syndication.

I had to fight to do celebrity interviews for that local weekend morning news show and I occasionally won the battle. One of the celebs I interviewed was Ray Liotta when he was promoting a 1994 action drama called NO ESCAPE. Upon meeting him and exchanging some chit-chat before the camera rolled, I realized that Ray Liotta knew more about my New York TV career than my local weekend morning news show bosses did.

At the end of our interview, Ray Liotta looked at the camera and said to WNBC/Channel 4 as he pointed to me, "...you're lucky to have him."

I was and am still touched by that generosity of his. One more thing: Did you know that Ray Liotta had done musical work onstage? In the interview, he told me that in college, he played The Emcee in his college production of CABARET. That's the role Joel Grey did on Broadway and in the movie version.