The 'Goodfellas' star died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic on May 26, 2022.
Ray Liotta's fiancée, Jacy Nittolo, is remembering the late actor on the one-year anniversary of his death. Jacy took to Instagram on Friday and posted a carousel of photos of their time together. And though she was smiling and kissing Liotta in every one of those photos, her caption detailed the harrowing experience soon after tragedy struck.
"A year ago today I was on a flight home from the Dominican Republic by myself in shock," Jacy began her caption. "My entire world unexpectedly turned upside down. I’ll never forget the beautiful woman, a complete stranger, who sat next to me and didn’t say a word. She gently grabbed and held my hand the entire flight as I cried and looked out the window. When we landed, she looked at me and said, 'Everything is going to be OK.'"
Jacy went on to detail that, after walking off the plane, she met Liotta's sister, Linda, on a connecting flight to Los Angeles.
"I don’t know what I would have done without Linda that night," she continued. "It’s been a heavy year of pain, heartache, healing, growing and accepting what is. Learning to smile at what was. It supposedly gets easier with time. No time will change a loss so great. You just learn to live with it and keep going, trusting that all will be OK."
Jacy also revealed that, 20 years ago to the day, her grandmother also passed away. She honored the woman who helped raise her and is remembering her as "the other love of my life."
Just a few weeks ago, Liotta's cause of death was revealed. The Goodfellas star died of heart and respiratory system issues. He was 67. Liotta died in his sleep on May 26, 2022 in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was filming Dangerous Waters.
Liotta deftly portrayed the real-life mobster Henry Hill in the 1990 Martin Scorsese-directed gangster film, Goodfellas, which would go on to earn six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, with Joe Pesci winning the film's only Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The actor first earned acclaim for his role as Ray Sinclair in the 1986 film Something Wild, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Prior to Goodfellas, Liotta also co-starred alongside Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, playing the role of baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson.
He also appeared in The Many Saints of Newark, Marriage Story and No Sudden Move, and starred alongside Jennifer Lopez for three seasons on Shades of Blue.
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