RAY LIOTTA - LIOTTA'S JOY AT ENDING ADOPTION PAIN

Hollywood star RAY LIOTTA is pleased he summoned up the courage to trace his biological mother, because it gave him closure on the emotional pain he has endured since childhood. The GOODFELLAS actor hired a private detective in 1997 to track down his mother, who left him in an orphanage when he was a baby. The 51-year-old was adopted by MARY and ALFRED LIOTTA from a Newark, New Jersey orphanage when he was six months old. But Liotta continually wondered what his life might have been like with his biological mum - when he did finally meet her, he discovered he isn't Italian and that he has a half-brother. Liotta says, "It has affected me since I was a little kid. When I was younger I felt like damaged goods. "Now I realise I was not being selfish. Most people in their situation give up on their children so the kids can have a better life. It's not because they don't want them."