RAY LIOTTA (GALLIAN) first garnered wide attention for his hard-edged performance as Melanie Griffith’s explosive ex in Something Wild (1986). He won the Boston Society of Film Critics’ Best Supporting Actor Award (tying with Dennis Hopper for Blue Velvet) and was nominated for a Golden Globe. The performance also impressed director Martin Scorsese, who cast Liotta as Henry Hill in his classic gangster film Goodfellas (1990). He recently played himself in the animated hit Bee Movie.

The versatile and hardworking actor always has a number of projects in the works. He stars in five films slated for release in 2008—Powder Blue, opposite Jessica Biel and Forest Whitaker; Hero Wanted, alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.; La Linea, with Esai Morales; Chasing 3000, co-starring Rory Culkin; and The Night Job, opposite Marisa Tomei.

Liotta was born in 1954 in Newark, New Jersey and studied acting at the University of Miami. He played a popular character on the daytime drama “Another World,” Joey Perrini, but it was his award-winning turn as Ray Sinclair in Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild that kick-started his career. He appeared in Dominick and Eugene and Field of Dreams before being cast in the lead role for Goodfellas alongside Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci. The Washington Post hailed Liotta’s movie-anchoring performance as “stunning, standout.”

Other film credits include Article 99, Unlawful Entry, No Escape, Corrina, Corrina, Turbulence, Cop Land, Hannibal, Blow, Narc, John Q, Identity, Revolver, Local Color, Smokin’ Aces, Crossing Over, Wild Hogs, Battle in Seattle and Narc, for which he won an Independent Spirit Award (Best Supporting Actor).
Liotta has also left his mark in the TV world. His credits include “St. Elsewhere,” “Mike Hammer,” “Our Family Honor,” “Women and Men: Stories of Seduction,” “Frasier,” “Family Guy” and “ER,” for which he won an Emmy (Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series).
Starring in the Golden Globe winning telefilm “The Rat Pack,” his performance as Frank Sinatra was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award (Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries). Liotta also starred in the made-for-television movie “Point of Origin” and toplined the CBS series “Smith.”