Ray Liotta may be gone, but his legacy in film and television still soars.
The late actor was posthumously nominated for his role on the Apple TV+ miniseries “Black Bird” when nominations for the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards were released Wednesday. Liotta, who played Big Jim Keene on the crime drama alongside Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser, was nominated for best supporting actor in a limited series.
Liotta’s daughter, Karsen Liotta, issued a statement Wednesday following her father’s nomination.
“I am so grateful to the members of the Television Academy for honoring my dad with this nomination,” Karsen said. “He was so incredibly proud of his performance in ‘Black Bird,’ and it would mean the world to him to be nominated alongside Taron and Paul.”
Liotta died in May 2022 at the age of 67 while filming the upcoming movie “Dangerous Waters” in the Dominican Republic, his publicist Jennifer Allen confirmed to USA TODAY at the time. The actor died in his sleep.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Liotta became an icon of cinema thanks to his roles in classic films such as “Goodfellas” and “Field of Dreams.” The actor, who grew up playing sports, studied acting at the University of Miami and later got his first break on the soap opera “Another World.”
Liotta’s breakthrough role came in 1990 with the Martin Scorsese mob drama “Goodfellas,” in which he played real-life criminal Henry Hill opposite Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. He was often featured in crime films, including the 2021 “Sopranos” prequel “The Many Saints of Newark.”
He scored a Golden Globe nomination for playing Melanie Griffith’s violent ex-con spouse in Jonathan Demme’s 1986 action romance “Something Wild.” In 1989’s “Field of Dreams,” he portrayed “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, a member of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox team who shows up as a ghost in the cornfield of an Iowa farmer (Kevin Costner).
This year’s Emmys are scheduled to air Sept. 18 on Fox, but the ceremony may be delayed by the ongoing writers’ strike and a potential actors’ strike.
Ray Liotta:Tough-guy star of ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ dies at 67
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Contributing: Anthony Robledo and Erin Jensen, USA TODAY
