Today, The Grandma has been reading about PaulSorvino, the American actor,opera singer, businessman, writer, and sculptor, who has died today.
Paul Anthony Sorvino (April 13, 1939-July 25, 2022) was an American actor, operasinger, businessman, writer, and sculptor.
He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law.
Sorvino was particularly known for his roles as Lucchese crime family caporegime Paulie Cicero (based on real life gangster Paul Vario) in Martin Scorsese's 1990 gangster film Goodfellas and as NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta on the second season of the TV series Law & Order. He also played a variety of father figures, including Juliet's father in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, as well as guest appearances as the father of Bruce Willis' character on Moonlighting and the father of Jeff Garlin's character on The Goldbergs. He took on additional supporting roles in A Touch of Class, Reds, The Rocketeer, The Cooler, and Nixon (as Henry Kissinger).
Although usually cast in dramatic supporting roles, he had occasional leads in films including Bloodbrothers, and also in comedic roles including his turn as a bombastic Southern evangelist in Carl Reiner's Oh, God!.
Sorvino was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for the 1972 play That Championship Season, and later starred in film and television adaptations. He was the father of actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino.
Sorvino was born on April 13, 1939, and raised in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn.
His mother, Angela Maria Mattea, was a homemaker and piano teacher of Italian (Molisan) descent who was born in Connecticut. His father, Ford Sorvino, was an Italian (Neapolitan) immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a foreman.
Sorvino attended Lafayette High School (where he was a classmate of painter Peter Max) and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
Sorvino lived in Los Angeles and Madison, Indiana. He had three children: Mira, Michael, and Amanda from his first marriage with Lorraine Davis. Mira and Michael are actors.
Sorvino died at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 25, 2022, aged 83. He was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Yesterday, Ray Liotta left us. TheGrandma wants to pay a tribute to this incredible actor talking about one of his nest films, Goodfellas, where he played the unforgettable character of Henry Hill in a film shot on location in Queens, New York.
Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler.
It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy by Pileggi. Starring Robert De Niro, RayLiotta, Joe Pesci, LorraineBracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy and postponed making it; he and Pileggi later changed the title to Goodfellas. To prepare for their roles in the film, De Niro, Pesci and Liotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material left over from writing the book.
According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines he liked most and put them into a revised script, which the cast worked from during principal photography.
Goodfellas premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival on September 9, 1990, where Scorsese was awarded with Silver Lion for Best Director, and was released in the United States on September 19, 1990, by Warner Bros.
The film was made on a budget of $25 million, and grossed $47 million. Goodfellas received widespread critical acclaim upon release: the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career.
The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Pesci winning for Best Supporting Actor. The film won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Film and Best Director. Additionally, Goodfellas was named the year's best film by various critics' groups.
Goodfellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, particularly in the gangster genre.
In 2000, it was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Its content and style have been emulated in numerous other films and television series.
Goodfellas is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book, Wiseguy. Martin Scorsese did not intend to make another mob film, but he saw a review of Pileggi's book, which he then read while working on the set of The Color of Money in 1986.
He had always been fascinated by the mob lifestyle and was drawn to Pileggi's book because he thought it was the most honest portrayal of gangsters he had ever read. After reading the book, Scorsese knew what approach he wanted to take, To begin Goodfellas like a gunshot and have it get faster from there, almost like a two-and-a-half-hour trailer. I think it's the only way you can really sense the exhilaration of the lifestyle, and to get a sense of why a lot of people are attracted to it."
According to Pileggi, Scorsese cold-called the writer and told him, I've been waiting for this book my entire life, to which Pileggi replied, I've been waiting for this phone call my entire life.
The film was shot on location in Queens, New York state, New Jersey, and parts of Long Island during the spring and summer of 1989, with a budget of $25 million.
Today, The Grandma continues relaxing at home. She has received the wonderful visit of Tina Picotes, one of her closest friends. Tina loves cinema and theatre and they have been talking about Ray Liotta, the American actor and producer who was born on a day like today in 1954.
Raymond Allen Liotta (December 18, 1954) is an American actor andproducer.
He is best known for playing Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990). His other roles include Ray Sinclair in Something Wild (1986), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, as well as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989), Officer Pete Davis in UnlawfulEntry (1992), Officer Gary Figgis in Cop Land (1997), Paul Krendler in Hannibal (2001), Fred Jung in Blow (2001), the voice of Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), Chief Gus Monroe in John Q (2002), Samuel Rhodes in Identity (2003), Detective Harrison in Observe and Report (2009), Markie Trattman in Killing Them Softly (2012), Peter Deluca in The Place Beyondthe Pines (2012), Lieutenant Matt Wozniak in the drama series Shades of Blue (2016–2018) and Jay Marotta in Marriage Story (2019).
Raymond Allen Liotta was born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 18, 1954. Having been abandoned at an orphanage, he was adopted at the age of six months by township clerk Mary and auto-parts store owner Alfred Liotta.
Alfred, the son of Italian immigrants, was also a personnel director and president of a local Democratic Party club. His adoptive parents each unsuccessfully ran for local office; he recalls attending parades to hand out flyers for his father's run.
He grew up in a Roman Catholic household in Union, New Jersey, although his family was not very religious. They went to church and he received first communion and was confirmed, but the family did not pray much. He occasionally uses prayer in his daily life.
He graduated from Union High School in 1973. He graduated from the University of Miami, where he studied acting and received a BFA in 1978. He performed in musicals such as Cabaret, Dames at Sea, Oklahoma, and Sound of Music during his time there.
After college, Liotta moved to New York City. He got a job as a bartender at the Shubert Organization and landed an agent within six months. One of his earliest roles was as Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World, on which he appeared from 1978 to 1981. He quit the show so he could try his luck in the film industry and moved to Los Angeles. He made his film debut in 1983's The Lonely Lady. His first major acting role was Something Wild (1986), which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination.
In 1989, Liotta portrayed the ghost of famed baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson in the fantasy/drama film Field of Dreams.
In
1990, Liotta portrayed real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin
Scorsese's critically acclaimed and commercially successful film
Goodfellas.
In
1992, he starred as a psychopathic cop in the thriller Unlawful Entry.
He appeared in a leading role in the science-fiction/action film No
Escape.
In 1996, he starred in the
sci-fi/thriller Unforgettable. Liotta earned critical praise for his
turn in James Mangold's 1997 film Cop Land, and he received critical
praise in 1998 for his performance as a compulsive gambler in Phoenix.
In addition to his film roles,
Liotta portrayed singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack
for which he received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination, starred as
himself in the sitcom Just Shoot Me in December 2001 & January
2002, provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the 2002 video game Grand
Theft Auto: Vice City, and appeared in the television drama ER in 2004,
playing Charlie Metcalf in the episode Time of Death. The ER role
earned Liotta an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
Liotta starred in the 2006 CBS television series Smith,which was pulled from the schedule after three episodes, and in 2012 Liotta appeared as himself in a purely vocal role for the What a Croc! episode of the Disney Channel comedy series Phineas & Ferb.
Liotta played the father of drug dealer George Jung in the 2001 Johnny Depp film Blow and, in the following year, appeared as Detective Lieutenant Henry Oak in the Joe Carnahan-directed film Narc, a role that led to an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards nomination for Best Supporting Male.
He then reunited with director James Mangold in 2003, alongside John Cusack and Alfred Molina, in the dark horror-thriller Identity.
In 2005, he narrated Inside the Mafia for the National Geographic Channel. He later appeared in Smokin' Aces -reuniting with Narc director Carnahan, in which he portrayed an FBI agent named Donald Carruthers in one of the lead roles.
Liotta appeared with John Travolta in the movie Wild Hogs, in Battle in Seattle as the city's mayor, and in 2008, starred in Hero Wanted as a detective alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. Also in 2008, he made a guest appearance on the SpongeBobSquarePants episode What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?; in the episode, he voices the leader of a gang called the Bubble Poppin’ Boys, who try to kill an amnesiac SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny. He also appeared in Crossing Over,co-starring Harrison Ford.
Liotta played Detective Harrison in the 2009 Jody Hill comedy Observe and Report as Seth Rogen's nemesis from the local police.
In 2011, he starred in The Son of No One, opposite Channing Tatum, and for the first time in his career, Al Pacino.
In 2004, Liotta made his Broadway debut opposite Frank Langella in the Stephen Belber play, Match.
In the 2010s, Liotta appeared in Date Night, with Steve Carell, Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron, the independent drama Snowmen, and The River Sorrow, which stars Liotta as a detective alongside Christian Slater and Ving Rhames. He starred alongside Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini in the 2012 Andrew Dominik film Killing Them Softly and the 2013 Ariel Vromen film The Iceman features Liotta as the character of Roy DeMeo. He had a supporting role in Muppets Most Wanted (2014).
In 2014, Liotta played a preacher in the faith-based film The Identical.
Liotta starred in the Western miniseries Texas Rising for The History Channel in 2015. Other projects include Kill the Messenger with Jeremy Renner, Stretch with Chris Pine and a David Guetta video.
Since June 2015, Liotta narrates the AMC docu-series The Making of the Mob.
In 2016, Liotta began starring opposite Jennifer Lopez in Shades of Blue.
In 2018, Liotta became a spokesperson for Pfizer's Chantix advertising campaign.
I think that if you can achieve a balance, then you appease a lot of yourself and your career and what it takes to maintain in this business for a while.
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