Liam Neeson

For many, Liam Neeson is a black and white actor who drank coffee with the Nazi dome while saving the lives of thousands of Jews under the deceit of supposedly cheap labor. Oskar Schindler was elevated to heroism thanks to his humanity: entering his employee list meant escaping the Holocaust. But Spielberg’s film also exalted the actor who gave life to the hero. Liam Neeson (Northern Ireland, 1952) “created” an extraordinarily close man, as real and vulnerable as any other (probably hence his heroism) and garnered unanimous applause from critics and the public. More than ten years have passed since that film and it is certain that no one has forgotten the final cry of its protagonist. And the curious thing is that the young William John Neeson was not aiming for an acting career.

He lived through the consequences of the violence in Northern Ireland from the Catholic side and his first great hobby was boxing. He started moving in the ring at the age of nine and at seventeen he said goodbye to that sport. Only the victory of the Iris Youth Championship and the broken nose he suffered at the age of 15 remain from that period. After that adventure, he received classes to be a professor at St. Mary’s Teaching College, and later entered Queen’s University of Belfast, where he studied computer science and physics. In short, as you can see, the imposing Liam (no less than 1.93 m tall) had more doubts than the song of the hot dogs. What’s more, before launching into acting, he also spent time working at Guinness (as a good Irishman), or earning his bread as a truck driver or architect’s assistant. But in 1976, at the age of 24, he joined the Belfast Lyric Player’s Theater company and made his debut in the play The Risen People. She then knew forever what he wanted to do. He later became part of the celebrated Dublin’s Abbey Teather (“the best training an actor can have”), where he became familiar with the classics. That’s when the director caught his eyeJohn Boorman , who hired him to play the knight Gawayn in Excalibur (1980).

The success of the Arthurian film heralded a promising career for the uptight Irish actor. So it was. During that decade, his roles in films such as Krull (1983), science fiction adventures directed by Peter Yates ; Mutiny on Board (1984), with a young Mel Gibson ; The Mission (1986), alongside stars Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons ; Requiem for those who are going to die (1987), which dealt with the thorny issue of the IRA and where Neeson offered a brief but very intense role; and Darkman (1990), his first starring role.

The following years were those of his consecration. After working with Woody Allen on Husbands and Wives (1992), came Schindler’s List (1993). Neeson received nominations for every major award and his cachet went through the roof. To the professional success he joined the personal: in 1994 he married the actress Natasha Richardson (whom he had met in the series Ellis Island ten years before). They have two sons, Michael and Daniel. Tragedy would visit them in 2009, when Natasha suffered a fatal skiing accident in 2009.

His definitive professional takeoff was later endorsed with a handful of good performances in Nell (1994), Rob Roy (1995) and above all in Michael Collins (1996), for which he won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Festival, and at the formidable and unfairly forgotten Les Miserables (1998).

After such success, his roles, it must be said, have been more uneven, perhaps due to the choice of overly commercial films: The Phantom Menace and The Lair in 1999, and Attack of the Clones , K-19: The Widowmaker and the disappointing Gangs of New York in 2002. Now he has returned to the fore thanks to the success of Love Actually , and the drama Kinsey has yet to be released. He is also part of the cast of Ridley Scott ‘s blockbuster , Kingdom of Heaven , and Batman Begins , the new adventure of the Batman that Christopher Nolan is currently shooting..