Born this Date: Ray Liotta

Raymond Liotta (born December 18, 1954) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor, best known for his starring role as Henry Hill in the 1990 film, Goodfellas.

Liotta (pronounced lee-OH-ta) was born in Newark, New Jersey and was adopted at the age of six months by Mary, an appointed township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, an auto parts store owner, personnel director, and the president of a local Democratic club. Both of his adoptive parents unsuccessfully ran for local office. Liotta believed his biological parents were of Scottish and Italian descent, but eventually reunited with his biological mother and discovered he is not Italian. In 1973 Ray Liotta graduated from Union High School in Union, New Jersey and was inducted into the schools' Hall of Fame in 1992. While living in Union, Ray briefly worked at an A & P supermarket and at Cerami's Pizzeria. Liotta studied acting at the University of Miami, where he performed at the university's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.

Liotta married actress Michelle Grace in February 1997. They met at her ex Husband's (Mark Grace) baseball game; they also co-starred in The Rat Pack, in which Liotta played Frank Sinatra and Grace played Judith Campbell Exner. Their daughter, Karsen, was born in December 1998. The couple divorced in 2004. Liotta currently resides in Pacific Palisades, California and is dating actress Catherine Hickland.

He told ABC's Good Morning America in 2001 that he was offered the role of Tony Soprano by series creator David Chase but turned it down to focus on movies.

Goodfellas - Long Scene - Last Day as a Wiseguy