Ray Liotta Cause of Death Revealed

Ray Liotta died of natural causes, with a medical report from officials in the Dominican Republic citing heart and respiratory issues, according to TMZ.

Doctors characterized Liotta’s death as natural and nonviolent, saying he suffered respiratory insufficiency, pulmonary edema (fluid in his lung), and acute heart failure. They also noted that Liotta had atherosclerosis, a condition where plaque builds up in the inner lining of an artery, causing it to harden or thicken. 

A rep for Liotta did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Liotta, 67, died in his sleep last May while on location in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters. The actor was best known for his roles in films like Field of Dreams, Something Wild, Cop Land, Marriage Story, and Goodfellas.

Liotta had completed a handful of projects before his death as well, including the recently-released movie Cocaine Bear and the mini-series Black Bird, which premiered last July. Liotta will also posthumously appear in Charlie Day’s upcoming directorial debut, Fool’s Paradise, out May 12.

In a recent interview with Today, Day praised Liotta’s performance in Fool’s Paradise and said his “biggest regret” was that Liotta wouldn’t get to see audiences react to his performance (though he did confirm Liotta had seen the movie). “[H]e delivers a performance that is, in my mind, I won’t say it’s Goodfellas good, but it’s Ray Liotta good,” Day said. “It’s up to his standards of what he can do well.”

Another posthumous project is April 29, 1992, director Ariel Vromen’s film set during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. The film stars Tyrese Gibson as a custodian who winds up involved in a heist orchestrated 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.

In an interview with ET Canada last year, Vromen recalled, “In the last five years, Ray was playing softer characters in television and film, so when I called, he said, ‘Is it dirty? Because I want to go down and dirty on this film. It’s been a while!’ I was like, ‘Perfect.’”

As for Dangerous Waters, the film Liotta was making when he died, the status of that project is unclear. The movie was announced just a few weeks before his death, and it’s not known how much of it he was able to film, or if his role will need to be recast to finish the project.