Childhood & Early Life
Liam Neeson was born on June 7, 1952, in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to Katherine, a cook, and Bernard “Barney” Neeson, a caretaker at the local primary school. Named Liam after a local priest, he has three sisters.
At age of nine, he began boxing lessons at the All Saints Youth Club and became Ulster’s amateur senior boxing champion. He began acting in school plays since age 11.
In 1971, he enrolled as a physics and computer science student at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Career
After leaving the university, Neeson returned to Ballymena where he worked in a variety of casual jobs including fork-lift operator and truck driver, and attended teacher training college for two years in County Down.
In 1976, he joined the Lyric Players’ Theatre in Belfast where he performed for two years. His first film experience was of playing Jesus Christ and Evangelist in the religious film, Pilgrim’s Progress.
In 1980, filmmaker John Boorman offered him the part of Sir Gawain in the Arthurian film, ‘Excalibur’. After ‘Excalibur’, he moved to London, and worked on stage, in small budget films and in television.
Between 1982 and 1987, he starred in ‘The Bounty’ alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, and in ‘The Mission’ with Robert De Niro. He also guest-starred in the television series ‘Miami Vice’.
From 1987 to 1994, he starred in movies, such as ‘Suspect’ and ‘Darkman’. During this period he also starred n the Broadway play ‘Anna Christie’ and recited the Van Morrison song “Coney Island” on a tribute album .
In, ‘Rob Roy’, a 1995 adventure film directed by Michael Caton-Jones he starred as Rob Roy MacGregor, an 18th-century Scottish historical figure who battles with feudal landowners in the Scottish Highlands.
In 1996, he starred as Michael Collins in the film of the same name. It’s a 1996 historical biopic that starred him as Michael Collins, the Irish patriot and revolutionary who died in the Irish Civil War.
In 2002, he shared screen space with Harrison Ford in the movie ‘K-19: The Widowmaker’.
In, ‘Kinsey’, a 2004 American biographical drama film, written and directed by Bill Condon that describes the life of Alfred Kinsey, a pioneer in the area of sexology, he played the controversial real-life figure.
In 2005, he starred as the villainous Henri Ducard in the movie ‘Batman Begins’. In this critically and commercially successful movie, Christian Bale played Batman and it also starred Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, and Morgan Freeman.
Between 2006 and 2011, he starred in movies such as ‘Seraphim Falls’, ‘Unknown’, ‘The Grey’ and ‘Clash of the Titans’.
In 2012, he worked in the ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ which was the final installment in Batman film trilogy, and the sequel to ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. He reprised his Batman Begins role in a cameo appearance.
In 2014, he starred in the film ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’; the film is an adaption of the best-selling novel of the same name. Neeson received rave reviews for the role of detective Matthew Scudder in the film.
He has lent his voice in many movies including, ‘The Simpsons’, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ series, ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’.
Major Works
In Steven Spielberg’ Holocaust drama, ‘Schindler’s List’, in 1993, he portrayed Oskar Schindler, a real-life German businessman who saved a thousand Jewish lives in Nazi Germany by employing them in his munitions factories.
He played Qui-Gon Jinn: A Jedi Master in ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace’, the 1999 epic space film directed by George Lucas which was the fifth highest-grossing film in North America
In the movie ‘Taken’, released in 2004, he played a former CIA operative tracking down his kidnapped daughter. The film redefined the actor as a successful action star, garnered a huge cult following and inspired a sequel
Awards & Achievements
Neeson was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor in a Leading Role for ‘Schindler’s List’. He was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA film awards for the 1993 movie.
In 1997, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama category for his portrayal of the Irish Nationalist in ‘Michael Collins’.
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year Honors. He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate by Queen’s University, Belfast.
