He played me in the movie...

 RIP Ray Liotta. He's been one of my favorite actors 

for a long time. Sorry to see him go...  

 

If your name was  Joe Jackson (like mine is), there isn't a single Joe Jackson 

(or Shoeless Joe) dig or joke you haven't heard. Trust me - I've heard 'em all.

 

His career was made indelible in his performance in Goodfellas, one of Scorsese's epic gangster flicks. Liotta plays the film's main character, the real-life mobster, Henry Hill. Hill narrates the movie, which spans from 1955 until 1980 when Hill entered the witness protection program.

Goodfellas demonstrates Scorsese's masterful, satirical approach to mafia stories - one where the dark, comedic twists are as genuine as the performances. Liotta's paranoid, energized, and egotistical characterization of Hill established him as one of Hollywood's most turbocharged actors. Maybe my second favorite movie of his.

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He wasn't afraid to take smaller roles, and when he did, he made them memorable. Here he is - playing me - in Field of Dreams.

Disney's ultimate feel-good baseball film includes a supporting performance from Liotta, who plays iconic sportsman "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Jackson is one of many deceased baseball stars who returns to Earth in Field of Dreams, a film led by Kevin Costner.

Costner plays an Iowa farmer who receives a prophetic message: "If you build it, he will come." After building a baseball diamond in his cornfield, one fantastical event after another unfolds on the screen. 

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Another one of my favorites he did that he got little credit for was John Q. Despite a very strong cast and its original premise, didn't wow critics. That said, this Denzel Washington-led thriller about a father who holds up a hospital so his son can get the heart transplant he needs remains a fan favorite.

Liotta is among the film's supporting cast, playing police Chief Gus Monroes, whose tough posturing does little to help the already stressful crisis situation. Robert DuVall, Anne Heche, and Kimberly Elise also star in John Q.

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His best work, I feel, was done in a supporting role to Sly Stallone in what I believe is both of their's best work.

Cop Land is one of the many ensemble crime films from the 1990s that seems to have fallen into relative obscurity. Liotta stars alongside the likes of Stallone, Harvey Keitel, and Robert De Niro in this neo-noir tale centered around a New Jersey sheriff who discovers some of the NYPD officers living in his quaint town are wrapped up in some heinous activities.

Liotta plays one of the questionable cops who live in twn, while Stallone plays Garrison's sheriff. Keitel, of course, is the resident NYPD lieutenant with quite a few skeletons in his closet.

No matter what the critics said, he left behind a fine body of work. Rest in peace, my friend...

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Here's a little trivia post-script. Shoeless Joe is not the the Baseball Hall of Fame, but his shoes are. How much sense does that make?

These spikes were worn by Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1919, the 

same year of the infamous Black Sox World Series scandal.

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