美国国家公共电台 NPR--Actor Ray Liotta, best known for 'Goodfellas,' dies at 67

Actor Ray Liotta, best known for 'Goodfellas,' dies at 67

Transcript¹

Liotta was in the Dominican Republic shooting the movie Dangerous Waters when he died. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Henry Hill in the 1990 Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

One of the wisest of wiseguys is gone. Actor Ray Liotta died yesterday while filming in the Dominican Republic. He was 67. He was the charismatic star of "Goodfellas," playing a real-life mobster who rose, fell and finally turned on other mobsters.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Ray Liotta was born in Newark, N.J., in 1954. He was adopted out of an orphanage² by an Italian American family. He studied acting³ at the University of Miami, and he played a jealous ex-husband in the 1986 movie "Something Wild."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SOMETHING WILD")

RAY LIOTTA: (As Ray Sinclair) You know, Charlie, she's not going to be too happy driving around in a station wagon⁴ the rest of her life. You better think about that.

FADEL: Later, he played Shoeless Joe Jackson in "Field Of Dreams."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FIELD OF DREAMS")

LIOTTA: (As Shoeless Joe Jackson) If you build it, he will come.

FADEL: But his defining performance was as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas." In one scene, he's questioned by Joe Pesci about an offhand⁵ remark.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GOODFELLAS")

JOE PESCI: (As Tommy DeVito) What do you mean I'm funny?

(LAUGHTER)

LIOTTA: (As Henry Hill) It's funny. You know, that story - it's funny. You're a funny guy.

PESCI: (As Tommy DeVito) What do you mean? You mean the way I talk? What?

LIOTTA: (As Henry Hill) It's just - you know. It's - you're just funny. It's funny, you know, the way you tell the story and everything.

PESCI: (As Tommy DeVito) Funny how?

INSKEEP: You can feel the menace. The film was almost too good for Ray Liotta. He later avoided gangster⁶ roles for a time because he didn't want to be typecast. Not until late in his career did he return to that genre⁷, notably⁸ in the recent Sopranos prequel, "The Many Saints Of Newark."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK")

LIOTTA: (As Salvatore Moltisanti) Maybe some of the things you choose to do aren't God's favorite.

ALESSANDRO NIVOLA: (As Dickie Moltisanti) What are you trying to say?

LIOTTA: (As Salvatore Moltisanti) What do I know? I'm a murderer.

INSKEEP: Several of Ray Liotta's characters were. But in that film, he actually played two characters - twins with very different personalities⁹, which spoke¹⁰ to the complexity¹¹ of people and also to his acting talent.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IS BUT A DREAM")

THE HARPTONES: (Singing) Life is but a dream. It's what you make it.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

5 offhand   

adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的

参考例句：

• I can't answer your request offhand.我不能随便答复你的要求。
• I wouldn't want to say what I thought about it offhand.我不愿意随便说我关于这事的想法。

6 gangster   

n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒

参考例句：

• The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
• He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗，却要装圣贤。

7 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

8 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

9 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。