Renowned actor Ray Liotta, who starred as “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in the classic baseball movie Field of Dreams in 1989, has passed away at 67.
Liotta broke onto the scene in 1986 for his turn in Jonathan Demme’s action romantic-comedy Something Wild, and later gave what became the most iconic performance of his career in 1990’s Martin Scorsese gangster film Goodfellas. But in between, his portrayal of Jackson immediately endeared himself to movie and baseball fans alike, and instantly joined the ranks of classic baseball movie characters of all time.
In the film, Jackson emerges from the cornfield of an Iowa farmer suffering a mid-life crisis and helps him repair his broken relationship with his late father. Liotta imbues Jackson with a softness and warmth, something the actor played off of in Goodfellas and other later roles in which he often played criminals or hardened law enforcement officers.
