At the age of over 70, the veteran Irish actor is one of the top stars of the action film genre and is best remembered for the “Taken” series.

Fans of the action series Taken – in which the main character, former CIA agent Bryan Mills (played by Liam Neeson), must rescue his relatives – have a famous joke: “Liam Neeson trained the knights.”

Jedi officer (in Star Wars), martial arts training for Batman (in Batman Begins), leader of a special task force (in The A-Team) and Zeus (in Clash of the Titans) . So why would anyone dare to foolishly touch his family?”

That’s a way of expressing admiration for Neeson – the actor who often appears on the big screen as a hero.

Coming to the stage randomly

Liam Neeson was born in Ballymena (Northern Ireland) in 1952 in a family of four children. As the only son, Neeson soon showed his passion for the sport of boxing from the age of 9.

The film world probably wouldn’t have had a talented actor if an interesting turning point hadn’t happened to him. At the age of 11, Liam Neeson fell in love with a girl at school and immediately nodded when his English teacher gave him the lead role in a play in which that girl also participated.

From then on, Neeson began to have a lot of passion for theater and was often absent from school plays.

Later, he decided to become an actor even though at one point he became a local amateur boxing champion. In an interview with the BBC, Neeson revealed who had the most influence on the above choice: “When I was in Ballymena, I often stopped by the church to watch the Protestant pastor Ian Paisley speak.

It was wonderful to hear that man talk about religion. It’s just a way of acting, but it’s really wonderful and moves the listener.”

Before becoming an actor, Liam Neeson had many careers: being a freight carrier, an amateur football player and even a truck driver. In 1976, he joined the theater in Belfast and became an actor there.

Four years later, Neeson was noticed by filmmaker John Boorman after a play and invited him to participate in the film Excalibur. After the project, Liam Neeson moved to London to participate in theater, television and low-budget films.

During his time here, Liam Neeson gained a lot of experience living with actress Helen Mirren and collaborating with names like Mel Gibson and Robert De Niro.

In 1986, Liam Neeson decided to move to Hollywood in hopes of finding more notable roles. Luck smiled on him when his role in the movie Suspect alongside Cher and Dennis Quaid helped Neeson receive much praise. But Neeson’s real breakthrough came in 1993, with the classic film Schindler’s List.

From a hero with a kind heart…

Schindler’s List is a touching true story about Oskar Schindler – a German businessman who became a benefactor to more than 1,000 Polish Jews during World War II. With his own financial potential, Schindler recruited Jewish people to work at his factories and thereby saved them from the Holocaust.

One of Schindler’s survivors decided to tell the story of his benefactor by writing the book Schindler’s Ark and then sending it to the studios. Famous director Steven Spielberg showed interest in this topic and decided to bring the story of Schindler to the big screen.

The above hero role quickly caught the attention of male stars because it is almost certain that Schindler’s List will become a well-received film with a valuable historical story told for the first time with the Spielberg brand of director.

Overcoming a series of stars such as Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson and Warren Beatty, Liam Neeson was trusted with the coveted role. Spielberg himself had been impressed with Neeson since seeing him in Anna Christie on Broadway and believed that this was the person he was looking for

In addition, another reason why Spielberg chose Neeson is that this actor is relatively unknown and fans will pay more attention to the character instead of the star playing the role.

The results proved that Spielberg did not look at the wrong person. In Schindler’s List, Neeson’s character Schindler is a perfect contrast to the cold-blooded Nazi Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes).

From a supporter of Fascism at the beginning of the film, Schindler gradually changed his mind and then became the savior of many destinies.

Neeson delivered a truly emotional scene before the final scene of the film, when Schindler sobbed as he received a thank you ring from the Jews he had helped. Schindler cried, because he felt he could have saved more lives.

After its release, Schindler’s List earned more than 300 million USD in revenue and was considered by many critics and audiences as one of the greatest films in history.

At the 1994 Oscars, the film won 7 out of 12 nominated categories, including important awards such as Best Film and Director. Although he lost the “Lead Actor” Oscar to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Neeson did not regret it too much because Schindler’s List brought his name to a new level.

This star was even permanently engraved in cinema history, when the American Film Institute AFI ranked Oskar Schindler at number 13 on the list of “50 greatest heroes of cinema”, above even superheroes. heroes like Superman or Batman.

After the great success of Schindler’s List, Liam Neeson continued to be nominated for a Golden Globe with the film Michael Collins (1996) and participated in many blockbuster film projects.

In films with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue such as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), Gangs of New York (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and Batman Begins (2005), Liam Neeson’s characters often is the role model of a teacher, father… who has a great influence on the male main character.

However, the above films were commercially successful but did not highlight Neeson’s abilities, and then a new chapter of his career opened for him thanks to Taken (2008).

… to the perfect father

As a former boxer, possessing a tall figure of up to 1.93m, with a masculine face and voice, Liam Neeson possesses all the elements of an action movie star.

But it wasn’t until he approached the U60 threshold that Neeson’s potential with the above film genre was exploited by filmmakers. Released in 2008, Taken was written by famous French action filmmaker Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morel.

The film tells the story of former CIA agent Bryan Mills on his journey to find his daughter kidnapped by human traffickers while traveling in Paris.

With a budget of only 25 million USD, Taken suddenly became a box office phenomenon with revenue of up to 226 million USD globally. Action movie lovers are attracted by the gunfights and thrilling chases from beginning to end of Taken. Among them, Neeson stands out the most, as he shows how well suited he is to the action movie genre.

The most impressive scene is the scene where Mills’ character talks to the kidnapper on the phone and affirms: “I don’t know who you are, but I will find and destroy you.

” Not only does Mills appear “cool” in battle scenes, he also touches viewers with the image of a father doing everything to restore family happiness and find his beloved daughter. After Taken, Liam Neeson became the image of a perfect father willing to do everything to protect his child.

Liam Neeson himself was also surprised by the success of Taken: “I thought it would just be a movie released on tape.
I wanted to spend three months in Paris, filming action scenes that people We don’t usually see it in me and then the movie will go straight to disc and not to theaters. That’s why I acted in the movie.

But unexpectedly the movie was successful beyond expectations and I was even quite embarrassed about this. Since then, people started sending me action movie scripts.”

Since then, Liam Neeson has continuously appeared in popular action movies, such as two episodes of Clash of the Titans, The A-Team (2010), Battleship and Taken 2 (2012), Non -Stop and A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)…

Having tried romantic or comedy movies like Love Actually (2003), A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), but with the action movie genre, Liam Neeson is still like “a fish in water”.

The above successes helped him be honored by the government of his hometown Ballymena in 2013 as an outstanding son of this land. With projects expected in 2015 such as Ted 2 or Entourage and many action films in the future, it can be believed that this star will continue to make his hometown famous.