Liam Neeson

After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena, where he worked in a variety of casual jobs, such as a forklift operator at Guinness and a lorry driver. He also attended teacher training college for two years in Newcastle upon Tyne before again returning to his hometown. In 1976, he joined the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast, where he performed for two years. He got his first film experience in 1977, playing Jesus Christ and The Evangelist in the religious film Pilgrim's Progress (1978). He moved to Dublin in 1978 when he was offered a part in Ron Hutchinson's Says I, Says He, a drama about The Troubles, at the Project Arts Centre. He acted in several other Project productions and joined the Abbey Theatre (the National Theatre of Ireland). In 1980, he performed with Stephen Rea, Ray McAnally and Mick Lally, playing Doalty in Brian Friel's play Translations, the first production of Friel's and Rea's Field Day Theatre Company, first presented in the Guildhall in Derry on 23 September 1980.

In 1980, filmmaker John Boorman saw him on stage as Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men and offered him the role of Sir Gawain in the Arthurian film Excalibur. After the role, Neeson moved to London, where he continued working on stage, and in small-budget films and television. He lived with actress Helen Mirren, whom he met working on Excalibur. Between 1982 and 1987, he starred in five films, most notably with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in 1984's The Bounty and Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in 1986's The Mission. Neeson guest-starred in the third season of the television series Miami Vice in 1986, and moved to Hollywood the next year to take higher-profile roles. He starred with Cher and Dennis Quaid in Suspect, which brought him critical acclaim. In 1988, he starred with Clint Eastwood in the fifth Dirty Harry film, The Dead Pool, as Peter Swan, a horror film director. In 1990, he had a starring role in Sam Raimi's Darkman. Although the film was successful, Neeson's subsequent years did not bring him the same recognition.

Steven Spielberg offered Neeson the role of Oskar Schindler in his holocaust film Schindler's List after seeing him in Anna Christie on Broadway. Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson and Warren Beatty all expressed interest in the part (Beatty even auditioned), but Neeson was cast in December 1992 after auditioning for the role. He read the Keneally book and concluded that his character "enjoyed fookin' [sic] with the Nazis. In Keneally's book, it says he was regarded as a kind of a buffoon by them... if the Nazis were New Yorkers, he was from Arkansas. They don't quite take him seriously, and he used that to full effect." His critically acclaimed performance earned him a nomination for a Best Actor Oscar, and helped the film earn Best Picture of 1993. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globes nominations for the performance. He soon became an in-demand leading actor.

In 1993, Neeson made his Broadway debut playing Mat Burke in the revival of the Eugene O'Neill play Anna Christie starring opposite his Ellis Island co-star and future wife Natasha Richardson. For his performance he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play The following year they also worked together in Nell (1994) starring Jodie Foster. He then took leading roles in the period piece drama films including playing the lead role of Rob Roy MacGregor in the historical drama Rob Roy (1995) opposite Jessica Lange, Brian Cox, and Tim Roth. Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times praised his ability to be a leading man writing, "Neeson, tall and grand, makes an effortless hero as Rob Roy".

The following year he acted in Neil Jordan's historical drama Michael Collins (1996) acting alongside Julia Roberts, and Alan Rickman. Neeson portrayed the title role as the Irish revolutionary leading the fight for Irish independence. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it received the Golden Lion with Neeson earning the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. He later earning nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Todd McCarthy of Variety praised his performance writing, "Neeson is a compulsive dynamo as Collins, with the actor seizing his part with a passion and boldness utterly in keeping with the character’s approach to life and his cause".

Neeson portrayed Jean Valjean in the 1998 adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables directed by Bille August. He starred alongside Uma Thurman, Geoffrey Rush, and Claire Danes. Writing of Neeson's performance, Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "[He] plays the role with the sure physical authority and profound decency that are fundamental to Valjean's character" adding, "With a first-rate cast and a venerable storytelling style, it fluently condenses Victor Hugo's epic novel and retrieves some of its suspenseful momentum." That same year he returned to the stage in the David Hare play The Judas Kiss (1998) portraying Oscar Wilde which ran at both the Almeida Theatre in the West End and the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway. He acted alongside Tom Hollander and Peter Capaldi. In 1999 he acted in the supernatural horror film The Haunting (1999) opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones.

In 1999, Neeson starred as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Director George Lucas cast Neeson because he considered him a "master actor, who the other actors will look up to, who has got the qualities of strength that the character demands." As the first Star Wars film to be released in 16 years, it was surrounded by media anticipation. Neeson's connection to Star Wars started in the Crown Bar, Belfast. He told Ricki Lake, "I probably wouldn't have taken the role if it wasn't for the advice of Peter King in the Crown during a Lyric reunion." Despite mixed reviews from critics and fans, The Phantom Menace was an enormous box-office success and remained the most financially successful Star Wars film (unadjusted for inflation) until Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

Neeson's performance as Qui-Gon received positive reviews and a Saturn Award nomination. A stock recording of his voice from The Phantom Menace can be heard during a scene in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002). Neeson was later reported to be appearing in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), but ultimately did not. In the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–20), he voiced Qui-Gon in two episodes of the third season and one episode of the sixth season, and he also made a voice cameo as Qui-Gon in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Neeson appeared as Qui-Gon in the final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), appearing as a force ghost to Obi-Wan, in an uncredited cameo, marking his first live-action portrayal of Qui-Gon since The Phantom Menace. He later voiced Qui-Gon again for an episode of the animated Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (2022).

Neeson narrated the 2001 documentaries Journey into Amazing Caves, a short film about two scientists who travel around the world to search for material for potential cures; and The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Adventure. The latter won awards at a number of film festivals including Best Documentary from both the Chicago Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review. Neeson returned to Broadway in the revival of the Arthur Miller play The Crucible acting opposite Laura Linney. For his performance as John Proctor he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Charles Isherwood of Variety praised Neeson writing, "In his thoughtful performance as Proctor, the effortlessly charismatic Neeson subtly delineates a man’s moral evolution as Proctor moves from casual scorn for the proceedings to outrage to soul-stricken despair" adding, "Perhaps the finest aspect of Neeson’s performance is its admirable restraint". That same year Neeson acted with Harrison Ford in Kathryn Bigelow's 2002 submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker as Captain Mikhail Polenin. He was also on the cast of Martin Scorsese's historical drama Gangs of New York with Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Diaz.

In 2003, he played a recently widowed writer in Richard Curtis's romantic comedy ensemble Love Actually (2003) acting alongside Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, and Laura Linney. The film was a commercial success and has since become a cult classic and holiday favorite. The following year he portrayed Alfred Kinsey in the biographical drama Kinsey reuniting with Laura Linney and Peter Sarsgaard and John Lithgow. Neeson received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama losing to Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator (2004). That year Neeson hosted an episode of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. He starred as a redneck trucker, Marlon Weaver, in an "Appalachian Emergency Room" sketch and as a hippie in a one-off sketch about two stoners (the other played by Amy Poehler) who attempt to borrow a police dog to find their lost stash of marijuana. Despite vowing not to play any Irish stereotypes, Neeson did play an Irish man named Lorcan McArdle in the home makeover show parody "You Call This A House, Do Ya?"

In 2005, Neeson took multiple roles in mainstream blockbuster films. He portrayed Godfrey of Ibelin in Ridley Scott's epic adventure Kingdom of Heaven, Ra's al Ghul, one of the main villains in Christopher Nolan's action film Batman Begins; and Father Bernard in Neil Jordan's adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel Breakfast on Pluto. That same year he replaced Brian Cox playing Aslan the Lion in the fantasy adventure film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) an adpatation of the C.S. Lewis book of the same name. In The Simpsons episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" (2005), he voiced the kindly priest who (briefly) converts Bart and Homer to Catholicism. That same year, he gave his voice to the lion Aslan in the blockbuster fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In 2007, he starred in the American Civil War epic Seraphim Falls. Neeson voiced the main character's father, James, in the video game Fallout 3. Executive producer Todd Howard said, "This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game". Fallout 3, the third game in the Fallout series, was extremely well received by critics and shipped 4.7 million copies by the end of 2008, the year it was released. In the director's commentary of the 2007 Transformers DVD, Michael Bay said he had told the animators to seek inspiration from Neeson in creating Optimus Prime's body language. Neeson appeared as Alistair Little in the BBC Northern Ireland/Big Fish Films television drama Five Minutes of Heaven, which tells the true story of a young Protestant man convicted of murdering a Catholic boy during The Troubles.

In 2008, Neeson starred in the action film Taken, a French-produced film also starring Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace, based on a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Pierre Morel. Neeson plays a retired CIA operative from the elite Special Activities Division who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped. Taken was a worldwide box-office hit, grossing $223.9 million worldwide, making almost $200 million more than its production budget. Neeson has said in interviews that he believed that Taken had put some people off the idea of actually travelling to Europe. Taken brought Neeson back into the centre of the public eye and resulted in his being cast in many more big-budget Hollywood movies. That year he also narrated the documentary Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity and again lent his voice to Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008). He also provided a voice for Hayao Miyazaki's anime film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, which received an August 2009 release.

In 2010, Neeson played Zeus in the remake of the 1981 film, Clash of the Titans. The film was a huge box-office hit, grossing $475 million worldwide. Neeson also starred in Atom Egoyan's erotic thriller Chloe, theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics on 26 March 2010. Chloe had enjoyed commercial success and became the Canadian director's biggest money maker ever. Later the same year, he played John "Hannibal" Smith in the spin-off movie from the television series The A-Team. Neeson voiced Aslan once more in the 2010 sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That same year he made a guest-star appearance on the Showtime series The Big C with Laura Linney. In 2011, Neeson starred in the action-thriller Unknown, a German-British-American co-production of a French book filmed in Berlin in early 2010, and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. This film led to a collaboration between Neeson and Collet-Serra (as director and/or producer) on a series of similar action films including Non-Stop (2014), Run All Night (2015), The Commuter (2018) and Retribution (2023). Neeson reunited with Steven Spielberg with plans to star as Abraham Lincoln in the 2012 film Lincoln, based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. In preparation for the role, Neeson visited the District of Columbia and Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln lived before being elected, and read Lincoln's personal letters. Neeson eventually declined the role, claiming he was "past his sell date" and had grown too old for the role and was replaced by Daniel Day-Lewis (who won his third Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Lincoln).

In 2011, he played himself in BBC2's series Life's Too Short starring Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Warwick Davis. In late 2011, Neeson was cast to play the lead character, a journalist, in a new album recording and arena production of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. He replaced Richard Burton, who had posthumously appeared in the arena production through CGI animation. Neeson did not physically appear on the stage, instead playing the role through the use of 3D holography. In 2012, Neeson starred in Joe Carnahan's The Grey. The film received mostly positive reviews and Neeson's performance received critical acclaim. He also starred in Taken 2 (2012), a successful sequel to his 2008 blockbuster. That year, he once again appeared as Ra's al Ghul in a cameo appearance in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the third and final film in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy. Dialogue from his role as Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins was featured in the first trailer for the film.

Neeson had a supporting role as the henchman Bad Cop/Good Cop in the animated film The Lego Movie, which was a critical and commercial success. Neeson later played Bill Marks in the 2014 action film Non-Stop. The film was released on 28 February 2014. He also appeared, uncredited, as God in the BBC2 series Rev.. Neeson stars in the 2014 film A Walk Among the Tombstones, an adaption of the best-selling novel of the same name, in which he plays former cop Matthew Scudder, a detective hired to hunt the killers of a drug dealer's wife. During Super Bowl XLIX, Supercell did a Clash of Clans commercial with Neeson playing the game as "AngryNeeson52" and vowing revenge on his opponent "BigBuffetBoy85" while waiting for his scone at a bakery. The appearance was a parody of his role in Taken. In 2016, Neeson narrated the RTÉ One three-part documentary on the Easter Rising, 1916. Following the success of the Taken films, Neeson has become increasingly known as a star of action thriller films. Besides The A-Team, Unknown, The Grey, Non-Stop, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night, The Commuter and Retribution, other recent action films starring Neeson have included Cold Pursuit (2019), Honest Thief (2020), The Marksman (2021), The Ice Road (2021), Blacklight (2022), Memory (2022) and In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2024). Neeson has indicated a desire to retire from the action genre though the films have taken his acting career in a new direction.

In 2016, Neeson reunited with director Martin Scorsese with the drama an adaptation of the novel Silence starring alongside Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver. That same year, he did the voice and motion capture for the Monster in the Spanish film A Monster Calls. In 2018 he acted in the Coen brothers western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and the Steve McQueen crime thriller Widows acting opposite Viola Davis. He portrayed Mark Felt in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017) directed by Peter Landesman and Philip Marlowe in Marlowe (2022) directed by Neil Jordan. He acted in the romantic drama Ordinary Love (2019) with Lesley Manville and the biographical drama Wildcat starring Maya Hawke. On television he played Chief Constable Byers in Derry Girls (2022), and portrayed a fictional version of himself in Atlanta (2022).