Ray Liotta was known for playing the ‘charming psychopath’ such as the American mobster Henry Hill in Goodfellas, as well as the nice guy ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson in 1989’s Field of Dreams. Aside from his repertoire of TV and movie characters, Ray Liotta also spent some time as a voice actor, and not just in animated series like The Simpsons or SpongeBob SquarePants; he voiced a couple of notable video game characters, too.
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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
In a series of firsts, Ray Liotta’s first-ever video game voice acting role was for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s protagonist, the “Harwood Butcher” Tommy Vercetti. Tommy was also the first-ever protagonist in Grand Theft Auto with a celebrity voice actor, and Vice City was the first to be made under the Rockstar label. The game went on to become the fastest-selling video game of its time, selling over 1.4 million copies within the first five days, impressing even Liotta himself.
Tommy Vercetti is a former member of Liberty City’s Forelli Crime Family. After Tommy served a 15-year prison sentence, he was sent to Vice City to handle a major drug deal with the Vance Brothers. Unfortunately, the deal fails as it gets ambushed, with all the money and drugs involved going missing, and the story of Vice City follows Tommy’s journey to discovering who wrecked the deal.
Throughout the game, Tommy builds a reputation within Vice City’s criminal underworld and builds his own criminal empire. This journey in Vice City ultimately leads him to finding, killing, and taking over the business of the man responsible for the failure of the Vance Brothers deal. Tommy was inspired to grow the Vercetti Crime Family into the biggest criminal empire in the city but instead quickly becomes the crime kingpin of Vice City after killing off the competition.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Mob of the Dead
Included in the second DLC Map Pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Ray Liotta voiced one of four mobsters in the Mob of the Dead zombie campaign who find themselves trapped on Alcatraz Island. Released in 2013, Liotta plays the mobster assassin Billy Handsome, and voices his character alongside prominent names like A Bronx Tale’s Chazz Palminteri, The Matrix’s Joe Pantoliano, and Reservoir Dogs’ Michael Madsen. Mob of the Dead was the second and last time Liotta ever voiced a video game character.
Billy admired mob boss Salvatore “Sal” DeLuca and the latter’s right-hand man Michael “Finn” O’Leary. His methods of taking care of the ‘dirty work’ that Sal didn’t want to participate in involved brutally killing the mob boss’ enemies in gruesome ways that always made headlines. He ends up on Alcatraz alongside mob members Sal, Finn, and Albert “The Weasel” Arlington after being convicted of 116 counts of murder. He and his companions quickly discover why the classic Call of Duty map is also nicknamed ‘Evil Island.’
Sal, Finn, and Billy were convinced by The Weasel to escape their imprisonment but their attempt failed. The three blamed Arlington for the failure which lead them to crafting weapons before leading Arlington onto the rooftop of Alcatraz and brutally murdering him. For their crimes, the three mobsters were sentenced to death by electric chair – from which the four of them awaken in a hellish alternate reality of the notorious prison. However, in this reality, Alcatraz is filled to the brim with brutal, ravenous Call of Duty zombies.
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