Ray Liotta stares down reporter who insults Winona Ryder at TIFF 2012

Veteran on-screen mobster Ray Liotta left journalists quaking in their boots with his cold stare at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on Monday. At TIFF's press conference for "The Iceman," the 57-year-old "Goodfellas" star threatened to "take" a reporter who asked his co-star Winona Ryder question that Liotta perceived as tactless.

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In the film about Mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski, Ryder plays the killer's unknowing wife while Liotta has the role of a member of the Gambino crime family. At Monday's press conference, Liotta appeared to summon his character's intimidating stature to stare down a journalist who claimed his teenage kids didn't know Ryder's name.

The 40-year-old actress rose to fame in the '80s and '90s with her roles in "Beetlejuice," "Heathers," and "Reality Bites," but took a hiatus for about four years starting in 2001 when she was infamously charged with shoplifting.

"[My kids] don't realize you have been gone because it's been so long," the reporter said to Ryder.

Before Ryder could respond, Liotta cut in, saying, "Let me take this one," while issuing his trademark death stare.

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Though the rest of the room eventually laughed off the incident, it was an uncomfortable moment, particularly since another journalist had earlier asked the "Black Swan" star if she felt "welcome again in Hollywood."

"I feel very blessed because I feel like Tim Burton gave me a career," she said referring to the "Beetlejuice" filmmaker. "I don't know if Hollywood would have known what to do with me -- I really wasn't very pretty and I was sort of going through my adolescence and that film was very groundbreaking and also successful and that led to some other things."

By Monday night, both Ryder and Liotta seemed to have put the incident behind them. Ryder dazzled on the "Iceman" red carpet in a little black dress as she posed with co-star Chris Evans and the film's eponymous anti-hero Michael Shannon.

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Liotta arrived just in time to smile for a cast-and-crew photo, though as far as we could tell, he didn't get as handsy as he did with Ryder at the Venice Film Festival.