What is the most memorable image of Ray Liotta? Is it the scene in Goodfellas in which his Henry Hill is trying to simultaneously organize a drug run and prepare the family dinner? Or his Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, walking out of a cornfield in the middle of Iowa? Or as poor unfortunate Krendler, who is served up slices of his own brain by Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal?

That this dark-eyed actor manages to make each of these characters memorable and clearly defined says much about his talent, which is especially impressive given that acting was something he more or less stumbled into while looking for something to fill his spare time at the University of Miami. After college, he moved to New York and just kept catching lucky breaks, landing his first role in a TV commercial while accompanying a friend to a casting agency. 
He quickly found work on the series "Another World", and after working in television for a few years, moved to Los Angeles, where Melanie Griffith, the wife of a long-time friend, suggested he read for a part in her upcoming movie Something Wild. He won acclaim in the role of Griffith's character's crazed ex-con husband (Roger Ebert called him "mesmerizing") and he shared the Boston Society of Film Critics' award for Best Supporting Actor with Dennis Hopper's equally edgy performance in Blue Velvet.

Liotta then surprised reviewers with his nuanced change of pace as a med student caring for a mentally challenged brother (Tom Hulce) in 1988's Dominick and Eugene. And then he made two films that, once again, showed a chameleon ability to play against type: the aforementioned Field of Dreams (1989) and Martin Scorsese's brutal, brilliant GoodFellas (1990). Now established as a fine actor, Liotta was able to move from one project to the next without being typecast, as witnessed by his work through the '90s: Unlawful Entry (1992); Corrina, Corrina (1994) with Whoopi Goldberg; the Disney movie Operation Dumbo Drop (1995); Cop Land (1997); and even Muppets From Space (1999). Recent years have seen him in more hard-edged roles in films such as Blow, John Q and the upcoming I.D., giving audiences many more memorable images of this talented actor.

Credit: amctv.com