Liam Neeson
Born	William John Neeson 7 June 1952 (1952-06-07) (age 56) Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Spouse(s)	Natasha Richardson (1994-)
Awards won Irish Film and Television Awards Best Actor in a Feature Film 2005 Kinsey Other awards Theatre World Award 1991 Anna Christie

William John "Liam" Neeson OBE (born 7 June 1952) is an Academy Award nominated Northern Irish actor. He is well-known for roles as Oskar Schindler in the 1993 film Schindler's List and Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. He also acted in Kingdom of Heaven, Batman Begins, Rob Roy, The Chronicles of Narnia, Taken, and Darkman. He continues to play characters based on real people, including Michael Collins, and Alfred Kinsey, and is also set to play President Abraham Lincoln in a biographical film directed by Steven Spielberg.¹

Life

Early life

Neeson was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, the son of Katherine "Kitty" (née Brown), a cook, and Barnard Neeson, a caretaker at the local Catholic boy's primary school.² He was called Liam, the Irish equivalent to William, after the local priest.³ He was the third child in the family and the only boy among four siblings; his sisters are Elizabeth, Bernadette and Rosaline.⁴ At age nine, Neeson began boxing lessons at the All Saints Youth Club.⁵ It was at age eleven that Neeson first stepped on stage. His English teacher gave him the lead role in a school play, which he accepted because the girl he fancied would be starring.⁶ From then on, he kept acting in school productions for the following years.⁷ His interest in acting and decision to become an actor was also influenced by Ian Paisley whose church Neeson would sneak into. Neeson has said of Paisley that "He had a magnificent presence and it was incredible to watch this six foot-plus man just bible-thumping away...It was acting but it was also great acting and stirring too. And his Baptisms skills are second to none."⁸

Still boxing at sixteen, he had been Youth Heavyweight Champion of Ireland for three consecutive years, aided by his height.

Career

While at University, Neeson's abilities as a talented footballer emerged which resulted in him being spotted by Bohemian FC manager Seán Thomas. Neeson travelled to Dublin for a trial with the club, and featured briefly when he came on as a substitute in a game against Shamrock Rovers, replacing Tony O'Connell. Neeson was not offered a contract at the club and that remained his only performance in professional football.

After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena and worked in a variety of small jobs, from fork-lift operator at Guinness to truck driver. He also worked at a teacher-training college in Newcastle for two years before again returning to his hometown. Neeson would get his first film experience in 1973, playing Jesus Christ and Evangelist in the religious film, Pilgrim's Progress directed by Ken Anderson. After a bet from co-workers at the architects' office where he worked, Neeson applied for an audition at the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast.⁹ After two years there, Neeson moved to Dublin and joined the Abbey Theatre in 1977. In 1980, film-maker John Boorman saw him on stage, acting as Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men, and offered him the part of Sir Gawain in the upcoming Arthurian movie, Excalibur. After Excalibur, Neeson moved to London, where he continued working on stage, small budget movies and TV series. He lived with the actress Helen Mirren at this time, whom he met working on Excalibur.¹⁰ Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films; mostly notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in 1984's The Bounty.

In 1987, Neeson made a conscious decision to move to Hollywood in order to star in high-profile roles.¹⁰ That year, he starred alongside Cher and Dennis Quaid in crime thriller, Suspect. The role would bring Neeson critics' applause, but it was 1990's Darkman that would bring his name to the public attention. Although the film gained success, Neeson's following years would not give him the same recognition. In 1993, he joined Ellis Island co-star, and future wife, Natasha Richardson in the Broadway play, Anna Christie. (They also worked together in Nell, released the following year.) Director Steven Spielberg, impressed by his performance, offered him the coveted role of Oskar Schindler, in the upcoming film about The Holocaust, Schindler's List.¹¹ His critically acclaimed performance later earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor; however, the award went to Tom Hanks for his performance in Philadelphia. Neeson also garnered BAFTA and Golden Globes nominations for Schindler's List.

Schindler's List established Neeson as a widely sought after leading actor. He later starred in period pieces Rob Roy (1995) and Michael Collins (1996), the latter earning him another Golden Globes nomination and a win for Best Starring Role at the Venice Film Festival. Neeson went onto star as Jean Valjean in the 1998 adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and in The Haunting as Dr. David Marrow.

Star Wars

In 1999, Neeson took on the role as Obi-Wan Kenobi's mentor, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, in George Lucas' much anticipated Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. His voice would later be used in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Neeson was to appear in the third prequel, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as a Force Ghost, but a motorcycle accident prevented this and instead the character was mentioned only. Due to his height (6 ft 4 in/193 cm), Neeson cost George Lucas an additional $150,000 in set design on The Phantom Menace^{citation needed}. Also, Neeson reprised his role as Qui-Gon Jinn in a cameo apperance in Star Wars: Clone Wars.

Other

Neeson narrated the 2001 documentaries Journey Into Amazing Caves and The Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. After being nominated for a Tony Award for his role opposite Laura Linney in The Crucible, Neeson teamed up with Harrison Ford in Kathryn Bigelow's submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) as Captain Mikhail Polenin and appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis). He also played a recently widowed writer in Richard Curtis' ensemble comedy Love Actually (2003).¹² His role as Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey again put Neeson up for nomination for a Golden Globe Award but he lost out to Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator.

In 2004, 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 a hippie in a one-off sketch about two stoners (the other played by Amy Poehler) who attempt to borrow a police dog in order to find their lost stash of marijuana. Despite vowing not to play any characters who were Irish stereotypes, Neeson did play a stereotypically Irish man named Lorken McArdle in the home makeover show parody "You Call This A House, Do Ya?"¹³ In 2005, Neeson could be seen playing Godfrey of Ibelin, in Ridley Scott's epic adventure Kingdom of Heaven, and as Father Bernard in Neil Jordan's adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel, Breakfast on Pluto. Also in 2005, he voiced the role of a kindly priest on The Simpsons, who converted Bart and Homer to Catholicism.¹⁴ 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.¹⁵ A year later, he narrated the documentary Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity.

In 2007, Neeson starred in the American Civil War epic Seraphim Falls alongside Pierce Brosnan and Anjelica Huston. He is also set to star as Abraham Lincoln in a film directed by Steven Spielberg.¹ In preparation for the role, Neeson visited Washington, D.C. and read Lincoln's personal letters. He also visited Ford's Theatre, where the President was shot.¹⁶ He again gave his voice to Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).¹⁷ Neeson's voice is featured in the video game, Fallout 3 as the main character's father, James.¹⁸ The executive producer of the game, Todd Howard, said "This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game".¹⁹

In the director's commentary of the 2007 Transformers DVD, Michael Bay said that he had told the animators to seek inspiration from Liam 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.²⁰

Neeson is currently filming the psychological thriller After.Life in New York with Christina Ricci and Justin Long.²¹ Neeson will provide a voice for the upcoming film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, projected for an April 2009 release, although the specific role is as yet unknown.²²

Personal life

Since 3 July 1994, Neeson has been married to actress Natasha Richardson, with whom he co-starred in Nell. She is a daughter of director Tony Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave and thus a member of the theatrical Redgrave family; her sister is Joely Richardson. They have two sons, Micheál Richard Antonio (born 22 June 1995) and Daniel Jack (born 28 August 1996). The family home is in exurban Millbrook, New York. Neeson turned down the 'Freedom of the town of Ballymena' offered to him by Ballymena Borough Council, because of objections made by members of the Democratic Unionist Party about his comments that he had felt like a 'second-class citizen' growing up as a Roman Catholic in the town. Neeson continues to practise the Roman Catholic religion and has raised his children Roman Catholic.²³

Despite the Democratic Unionist Party's objections to him, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year's Honours List. The American Ireland Fund honored Liam Neeson with their Performing Arts Award for the great distinction he has brought to Ireland at their 2008 Dinner Gala in New York.

Filmography

References

External links

• ITV Local Interview at premiere of Taken
• Liam Neeson at the Internet Movie Database
• Liam Neeson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Liam Neeson at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• The American Ireland Fund Performing Arts Award 2008