Liam Neeson
☼ Born on 7 December 1952, in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK
Biography
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to Katherine (Brown), a cook, and Bernard Neeson, a school caretaker. He was raised in a Catholic household. During his early years, Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, a truck driver, an assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St. Mary's Teaching College, Newcastle. However, in 1976, Neeson joined the Belfast Lyric Players' Theater and made his professional acting debut in the play "The Risen People". After two years, Neeson moved to Dublin's Abbey Theater where he performed the classics. It was here that he was spotted by director John Boorman and was cast in the film Excalibur (1981) as Sir Gawain, his first high-profile film role.
Through the 1980s Neeson appeared in a handful of films and British TV series - including The Bounty (1984), A Woman of Substance (1984), The Mission (1986), and Duet for One (1986) - but it was not until he moved to Hollywood to pursue larger roles that he began to get noticed. His turn as a mute homeless man in Suspect (1987) garnered good reviews, as did supporting roles in The Good Mother (1988) and High Spirits (1988) - though he also starred in the best-to-be-forgotten Satisfaction (1988), which also featured a then-unknown Julia Roberts - but leading man status eluded him until the cult favorite Darkman (1990), directed by Sam Raimi. From there, Neeson starred in Under Suspicion (1991) and Ethan Frome (
(click to expand)
1993), was hailed for his performance in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives (1992), and ultimately was picked by Steven Spielberg to play Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List (1993). The starring role in the Oscar-winning Holocaust film brought Neeson Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor.
Also in 1993, he made his Broadway debut with a Tony-nominated performance in "Anna Christie", in which he co-starred with his future wife Natasha Richardson. The next year, the two also starred opposite Jodie Foster in the movie Nell (1994), and were married in July of that year. Leading roles as the 18th century Scottish Highlander Rob Roy (1995) and the Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins (1996) followed, and soon Neeson was solidified as one of Hollywood's top leading men. He starred in the highly-anticipated Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) as Qui-Gon Jinn, received a Golden Globe nomination for Kinsey (2004), played the mysterious Ducard in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), and provided the voice for Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
Neeson found a second surprise career as an action leading man with the release of Taken (2008) in early 2009, an unexpected box office hit about a retired CIA agent attempting to rescue his daughter from being sold into prostitution. However, less than two months after the release of the film, tragedy struck when his wife Natasha Richardson suffered a fatal head injury while skiing and passed away days afterward. Neeson returned to high-profile roles in 2010 with two back-to-back big-budget films, Clash of the Titans (2010) and The A-Team (2010), and returned to the action genre with Unknown (2011), The Grey (2011), Battleship (2012) and Taken 2 (2012), as well as the sequel Wrath of the Titans (2012).
Neeson was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1999 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to drama. He has two sons from his marriage to Richardson: Micheal Richard Antonio Neeson (born June 22, 1995) and Daniel Jack Neeson (born August 27, 1996).
In the role of actor
The Wrath (26/07/2019)
A wealthy Korean family is tormented by a vengeful spirit in The Wrath. The heirs of the family of Madame Shin are being killed off on their wedding way by the vengeful spirit of a woman. Ok-bun is a young beggar, who is married off to Shin’s youngest son, in a last-ditch effort to break […]
Widows (18/11/2018)
The wives of slain criminals plan their own heist in Widows. Following a heist gone sour, career criminal Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his crew are gunned down by police. Harry’s death leaves his widow Veronica (Viola Davis) $2 million in debt to gangster, turned politician Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), who is in the midst of running in […]
Love (21/09/2015)
Warning: The content described in this review is only suitable for people 18 years or older. Reader discretion is advised.Controversial filmmaker Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void) mixes romantic drama with explicit sex in Love. Murphy (Karl Glusman) is an American film student, who begins an extremely passionate relationship with Parisian artist Electra (Aomi Muyock). Featuring a […]
Run All Night (15/03/2015)
Liam Neeson plays an ex-mob enforcer protecting his estranged son in the thriller Run All Night. Jimmy Conlon (Neeson) is an aging hitman haunted by the crimes of his past. He has fallen out with his son Michael (Joel Kinnaman), who he hasn’t seen for five years, and his only true friend is his old […]
A Million Ways to Die in the West (02/06/2014)
Following the success of his 2012 feature debut Ted, Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) returns to direct and star in this comedic tale set in the Wild West. Set in the year 1882, in the small town of Old Stump, Arizona, sheep farmer Albert Stark (MacFarlane) tries his best to avoid the many violent confrontations (and […]
Taken 2 (13/10/2012)
When it was released in 2008, Taken became a surprise hit and started Liam Neeson‘s current career path as an action star. That said, there wasn’t really any need for a sequel. The film was seemed like a fairly stand-alone story, which saw Neeson’s ex-spy Bryan Mills tear through Paris looking for his kidnapped daughter. […]
Wrath of the Titans (30/03/2012)
I don’t know where to begin when it comes to Wrath of the Titans. I actually somewhat enjoyed the previous film Clash of the Titans (even though I decided to give it half a point less in my rating). That film still ended up being somewhat watchable, despite being one of the first (of many) victims of […]
The Grey (30/01/2012)
Now, on this day of Guillermo del Toro sightings, I also happened to see a movie. They were really hyping this movie over the last few days as having a performance by Liam Neeson that was so good, that plans are already being made to re-release the film in October for a possible Oscar qualifying […]
Unknown (19/02/2011)
I have been hearing a lot of comparisons between this film and Liam Neeson‘s surprise 2008 hit Taken. However, while they are both films that feature Neeson in a genre he is not usually known for, they are two different types of film. While the term is probably overused, the best description of Unknown would be […]
The A-Team (13/06/2010)
I was pretty much a toddler when the original television series was popular, however I still remember watching it. As you can guess, I don’t really remember anything about the show other than Mr T. As such, I can’t really compare the new film version to the show. However, I can say that this was […]
Taken (01/02/2009)
Apparently the North American release of this film was delayed so long that it was released is pretty much every other country, but here. I also found out that this version of Taken is an edited PG-13 version, instead of the more violent version that was released overseas. That said, I still found the film […]