Ray Liotta Nabs Posthumous Emmy Nomination For ‘Black Bird’ More Than A Year After His Death

More than a year after his sudden death, Ray Liotta has been honored with a 2023 Emmy nomination for his role in the Apple TV+ series Black Bird. The posthumous nod to one of the beloved actor’s final projects was announced earlier today, along with the rest of the award show’s nominations.

Liotta was nominated alongside co-star Paul Walter Hauser in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie category. Black Bird — which was released in July 2022 — also nabbed nominations for Taron Egerton‘s role as lead actor, as well as outstanding cinematography.

Following this morning’s nominations, Liotta’s daughter, Karsen Liotta, thanked the Television Academy for “honoring” her father in a statement shared with People.

“I am so grateful to the members of the Television Academy for honoring my Dad with this nomination,” she told the outlet. “He was so incredibly proud of his performance in Black Bird, and it would mean the world to him to be nominated alongside Taron and Paul.”

In the six-episode miniseries, Liotta plays James Keene Sr., the father of James Keene Jr. (Egerton) — a former promising football player who gets caught up in dealing drugs. He ultimately gets the choice to stay in the prison he’s in with no chance of parole, or move to a “maximum-security prison for the criminally insane or befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Hauser),” per the show’s logline.

Liotta died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic in May 2022 at the age of 67. According to documents obtained by TMZ earlier this year, his death was ruled “natural and nonviolent” — and was a result of respiratory problems, acute heart failure and pulmonary edema, or when fluid gets in the lungs.

Along with the rest of Hollywood, Egerton paid tribute to the Goodfellas star in a heartfelt Instagram post following the news of his passing.

“I stepped on the set of Black Bird in May of last year deeply excited that I would be working with Ray Liotta and even more excited that he would be playing my father,” he wrote at the time. “He was keeping himself to himself. Protecting his energy and his performance. I didn’t know how to approach him as I didn’t want to intrude.”

The actor remembered Liotta finally making eye contact and hugging him “without saying a word,” adding that they only spoke in character for the first day.

“What ensued was a profound experience for me as an actor; I have never felt such an easy, warm connection with another performer,” Egerton said. “He was so generous. If I went one way he followed me. Always dancing. Always listening. Never self-generated.”

He continued, “I am extraordinarily proud of my next project. It was hard work and I was blessed to have a number of incredible scene partners, but I will always be most proud of my scenes with Ray; the relationship we built felt real in some strange way.”

Black Bird is currently streaming on Apple TV+.