Officials in the Dominican Republic said the actor’s death was natural and nonviolent, citing heart and respiratory issues.
According to TMZ, Ray Liotta died of natural causes, with a medical report from officials in the Dominican Republic citing heart and respiratory issues.
Doctors described Liotta’s death as natural and nonviolent, stating that he died as a result of respiratory insufficiency, pulmonary edema (fluid in his lungs), and acute heart failure. They also discovered that Liotta suffered from atherosclerosis, a condition in which plaque accumulates in the inner lining of an artery, causing it to harden or thicken.
A representative for Liotta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Liotta, 67, died in his sleep last May while shooting the film Dangerous Waters in the Dominican Republic. Field of Dreams, Something Wild, Cop Land, Marriage Story, and Goodfellas were among the films in which he starred.
Before his death, Liotta had completed a number of projects, including the recently released film Cocaine Bear and the mini-series Black Bird, which premiered last July. Liotta will also appear posthumously in Charlie Day’s upcoming directorial debut, Fool’s Paradise, which will be released on May 12.
Day praised Liotta’s performance in Fool’s Paradise in a recent interview with Today, saying his “biggest regret” was that Liotta wouldn’t get to see how audiences reacted to his performance (though he did confirm Liotta had seen the film). “[H]e delivers a performance that, in my opinion, is Ray Liotta good, not Goodfellas good,” Day said. “It’s up to his high standards of what he can do well.”
Another posthumous project is director Ariel Vromen’s film April 29, 1992, which is set during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Tyrese Gibson plays a custodian who becomes involved in a heist planned by a father-son duo played by Liotta and Scott Eastwood. The film is expected to be released this year, though an official date hasn’t been announced yet.
Vromen told ET Canada last year, “In the last five years, Ray had been playing softer characters in television and film, so when I called, he said, ‘Is it dirty?'” Because I want to get my hands dirty with this film. It’s been a long time!’ “I thought, ‘Perfect.'”
The status of Dangerous Waters, the film Liotta was working on when he died, is unknown. The film was announced just a few weeks before his death, and it’s unclear how much of it he was able to film, or whether his role will need to be recast in order to complete the project.
