Ray Liotta: An Oral History

Gary Hecker: There's a restaurant in Venice called 72 Market Street that was there for many years. It was owned by Dudley Moore. Ray and I and a date of his and my then-fiancée, we would go to dinner at 72 Market Street. Ray was not the kind of guy to go up to a group of people and start talking. That's something that I would do, but it was not something that he would do. But we're at dinner and he gets up and leaves the table to go talk to somebody at another table. And it was Irwin Winkler, who would go on to produce Goodfellas. So he went up to Irwin. I may have given him a push and said, "You should go talk to these people." Ray said, "Irwin, can I talk to you outside?" It's really ballsy to go up to Irwin Winkler and say that. I remember Ray was gone for fifteen minutes, which was really a long time. It was all happenstance—getting Ray out and going to 72 Market Street, Irwin Winkler being there, Ray going up to him, which he rarely did. But that helped to grease the wheels for him to get that part.

View in Browser  SHOP EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBE Ray Liotta: An Oral History Gary Hecker: There's a restaurant in Venice called 72 Market Street that was there for many years. It was owned by Dudley Moore. Ray and I and a date of his and my then-fiancée, we would go to dinner at 72 Market Street. Ray was not the kind of guy to go up to a group of people and start talking. That's something that I would do, but it was not something that he would do. But we're at dinner and he gets up and leaves the table to go talk to somebody at another table. And it was Irwin Winkler, who would go on to produce Goodfellas. So he went up to Irwin. I may have given him a push and said, "You should go talk to these people." Ray said, "Irwin, can I talk to you outside?" It's really ballsy to go up to Irwin Winkler and say that. I remember Ray was gone for fifteen minutes, which was really a long time. It was all happenstance—getting Ray out and going to 72 Market Street, Irwin Winkler being there, Ray going up to him, which he rarely did. But that helped to grease the wheels for him to get that part. Read More Chase Stokes Is Hot, Humble, and Not Holding Back Ahead of the 'Outer Banks' Season Three premiere, the star talks Tom Ford, life beyond John B., and much, much more. Read More The 18 Best Sweatsuits to Up Your Set Game The WFH staple isn't going anywhere, even now. Read More Here's the Attention George Santos Ordered With His AR-15 Stunt Why, oh why, would George Santos think he had a future in Republican politics just because he is a pathological liar entirely incapable of shame? Perhaps we'll never know. But why, oh why, would George Santos think he could have a future in the House Republican caucus serving up nihilist rage-bait to make himself a focal point for the culture wars? For one thing, it's better than being a focal point for having bragged about needing both your knees replaced because of all those hard hours training to become a champion volleyball player at a college you never attended. Better to be known for signing onto a bill, first flagged by Gothamist, to make the AR-15 the "National Gun of the United States." Or, more precisely: "AR-15 style rifle chambered in a .223 Remington round or a 5.56x45mm NATO round." Read More 10 Sport Watches That Will Get You Into Workout Mode No need to sacrifice style just to get ECG monitoring on your wrist. Read More Rarely Seen Photos of Celebrities Off-Duty in the 1990s Famous people in the '90s still looked rich and famous even when they weren't working. Well, most of them. Read More Donovan Mitchell Says Every Leader Needs One Phrase: 'I Fucked Up' In our latest How I Take a Loss column, we jetted off to NBA All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah. There, we caught up with Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, who—to put it simply—is having the season of his life. After the Utah Jazz traded him to the destination he was least expecting (sorry, Knicks fans), Mitchell led the young Cavs to the top half of the Eastern Conference, nabbing his first All-Star start along the way. By the way, Mitchell, 26, was off doing something deeply cool minutes before our chat. At adidas basketball's "Remember the Why" event, he gifted a dolly-full of special D.O.N. Issue 4 shoes to the Grambling State men's basketball team. Then, popped a Tootsie roll in his mouth, and settled in to talk about the losses that got him here—with his mom, as always, nearby. Read More Follow Us Unsubscribe | Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019