Line #36 Creator/LiamNeeson


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11	[[quoteright:279:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/liam_neeson6.png]]
12	[[caption-width-right:279:''"[[Film/ThePhantomMenace Be mindful of the Living Force, young Padawan learner.]]"'']]
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14	->'''Lewis''': No, now I'm curious. Let's say you're going to prison for a long time. Plus, your parents? Very understanding. [[SituationalSexuality Who's your cellmate?]]\
15	'''Oswald''': ...Liam Neeson.
16	-->-- ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'', first episode
17
18	William John Neeson (born June 7, 1952 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland) is a multi-award winning British actor originally from [[UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland Stroke Country]].
19
20	His long and multi-faceted career started out with character actor work in films like ''Film/{{Excalibur}}'', ''Film/TheBounty'' (as a mutinous sailor) and ''Film/TheDeadPool''. He graduated to leading man status with comic book horror adaptation ''Film/{{Darkman}}''. His later career has taken him from serious drama (as Oskar Schindler in ''Film/SchindlersList'' and Dr. Jerome Lovell in ''Film/{{Nell}}'') to fantasy (Zeus in ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans\|2010}}'' and the voice of Aslan in ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'') to action (Bryan Mills in ''Film/{{Taken}}'') to Sci-Fi (Qui-Gon Jinn in ''Franchise/StarWars Episode I: Film/ThePhantomMenace''), to historical film (''Film/RobRoy'', ''Film/MichaelCollins''). Animated characters that Neeson voiced include Fujimoto, the dad of the eponymous character in ''Anime/{{Ponyo}}'', and Bad Cop/Good Cop, in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'', and The Monster in ''Literature/AMonsterCalls''. Also said to have been the inspiration behind Captain Carrot of ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fame. In recent years, Neeson seems to have replaced the late Creator/SeanConnery as Hollywood's go-to-actor for playing TheMentor and the CoolOldGuy.
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22	Following his shift to bona fide action star with the ''Taken'' series, his roles have included TheNarrator in Music/JeffWaynesMusicalVersionOfTheWarOfTheWorlds, [[LiteralSplitPersonality Good Cop/Bad Cop]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'', Air Marshal Bill Marks in ''Film/NonStop'', Clinch in the Creator/SethMacFarlane comedy ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'', and Matthew Scudder in ''Film/AWalkAmongTheTombstones''. He also did the voice of James from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''.
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24	Neeson was married to Creator/NatashaRichardson between 1994 and 2009, when she died in a tragic skiing accident. They had two sons.
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26	----
27	[[folder:Filmography]]
28
29	* ''Film/{{Excalibur}}'' (1981) as [[Literature/SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight Gawain]]
30	* ''Film/TheBounty'' (1984) as Charles Churchill
31	* ''Film/TheMission'' (1986) as Father John Fielding
32	* ''Film/TheDeadPool'' (1988) as Peter Swan
33	* ''Film/{{Darkman}}'' (1990) as Peyton Westlake / Darkman
34	* ''Film/SchindlersList'' (1993) as Oskar Schindler
35	* ''Film/{{Nell}}'' (1994) as Dr. Jerome "Jerry" Lovell
36	* ''Film/MichaelCollins'' (1996) as Michael Collins
37	* ''[[Film/LesMiserables1998 Les Misérables]]'' (1998) as Jean Valjean
38	* ''Franchise/StarWars'' as Qui-Gon Jinn
39	** ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIThePhantomMenace'' (1999)
40	** ''Film/StarWarsEpisodeIIAttackOfTheClones'' (2002)[[note]]Uncredited cameo[[/note]]
41	** ''[[VideoGame/LEGOStarWars LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game]]'' (2005)[[note]]Uncredited role[[/note]]
42	** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' (2011-2014)
43	** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' (2019) [[note]]Voice cameo[[/note]]
44	** ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' (2022)[[note]]Uncredited role[[/note]]
45	** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTalesOfTheJedi'' (2022)
46	* ''[[Film/TheHaunting1999 The Haunting]]'' (1999) as Dr. David Marrow
47	* ''Film/K19TheWidowmaker'' (2002) as Captain Mikhail Polenin
48	* ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' (2002) as "Priest" Vallon
49	* ''Film/LoveActually'' (2003) as Daniel
50	* ''Film/{{Kinsey}}'' (2004) as Alfred Kinsey
51	* ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'' (2005) as Godfrey Of Ibelin
52	* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' as Henri Ducard / [[spoiler: ComicBook/RasAlGhul]]
53	** ''Film/BatmanBegins''
54	** ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''
55	* ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Series'' as Aslan (Voice Role)
56	** ''Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'' (2005)
57	** ''Film/PrinceCaspian'' (2008)
58	** ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' (2010)
59	* ''Film/SeraphimFalls'' (2007) as Colonel Morsman Carver
60	* ''The Film/{{Taken}} Trilogy'' as Bryan Mills
61	** ''Taken'' (2008/2009)
62	** ''Taken 2'' (2012)
63	** ''Taken 3''[[note]]or alternatively, ''[[Letters2Numbers Tak3n]]''[[/note]] (2014/2015)
64	* ''Anime/{{Ponyo}}'' (2009) as Fujimoto (Voice Role / [[SuperlativeDubbing/EnglishDubs English Dub]])
65	* ''Film/AfterLife'' (2009) as Eliot Deacon
66	* ''Film/{{Chloe}}'' (2009/2010) as David Stewart
67	* ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans2010'' as [[EverybodyLovesZeus Zeus]]
68	** ''Wrath Of The Titans'' (2012)
69	* ''Film/TheATeam'' (2010) as John "Hannibal" Smith
70	* ''Film/TheNextThreeDays'' (2010) as Damon Pennington
71	* ''[[Film/Unknown2011 Unknown]]'' (2011) as Dr. Martin Harris
72	* ''Film/TheGrey'' (2012) as John Ottway
73	* ''Film/{{Battleship}}'' (2012) as Admiral Terrance Shane
74	* ''Third Person'' (2013) as Michael
75	* ''Film/Anchorman2TheLegendContinues'' (2013) as [[Creator/TheHistoryChannel History Channel Reporter]]
76	* ''WesternAnimation/TheNutJob'' (2014) as Raccoon (Voice Role)
77	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'' (2014) as Bad Cop / Good Cop / Pa Cop (Voice Role)
78	* ''WesternAnimation/TheProphet'' (2014) as Mustafa
79	* ''Film/NonStop'' (2014) as Bill Marks
80	* ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'' (2014) as Clinch Leatherwood
81	* ''Film/AWalkAmongTheTombstones'' (2014) as Matthew Scudder
82	* ''Film/RunAllNight'' (2015) as Jimmy "The Gravedigger" Conlon
83	* ''Film/{{Entourage}}'' (2015) as himself
84	* ''Film/Ted2'' (2015) as Trix Customer
85	* ''Film/TheHuntsmanWintersWar'' (2016) as Narrator
86	* ''Film/AMonsterCalls'' (2016) as the titular Monster (Voice Role / MotionCapture)
87	* ''Film/{{Silence}}'' (2016) as Father Cristóvão Ferreira
88	* ''[[Film/DaddysHome Daddy's Home 2]]'' (2017) as Actor in [[ShowWithinAShow Missile Tow]] (Voice Role / TheCameo)
89	* ''Film/MarkFeltTheManWhoBroughtDownTheWhiteHouse'' (2017) as Mark Felt
90	* ''Film/TheCommuter'' (2018) as Michael Maccauley
91	* ''Film/TheBalladOfBusterScruggs'' (2018) as Impresario[[note]]For the segment "Meal Ticket"[[/note]]
92	* ''Film/{{Widows}}'' (2018) as Harry Rawlings
93	* ''Film/ColdPursuit'' (2019) as Nelson "Nels" Coxman
94	* ''Film/MenInBlackInternational'' (2019) as High T
95	* ''Ordinary Love'' (2019) as Tom Thompson
96	* ''Film/MadeInItaly'' (2020) as Robert Foster
97	* ''Film/HonestThief'' (2020) as Tom Carter / Tom Dolan
98	* ''Film/TheMarksman'' (2021) as Jim Hanson
99	* ''Film/TheIceRoad'' (2021) as Mike [=McCann=]
100	* ''Film/{{Blacklight}}'' (2022) as Travis Block
101	* ''Film/{{Memory\|2022}}'' (2022) as Alex Lewis
102	* ''Film/{{Marlowe\|2022}}'' (2022) as [[Literature/PhilipMarlowe Philip Marlowe]]
103	* ''Film/{{Retribution\|2023}}'' (2023) as Matt Turner
104	* ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'' (2023) as the Narrator in "The Indict-Mare Before Christmas"
105	[[/folder]]
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108	!!This actor's works provides examples of:
109	* AdamWesting: He voiced himself in an episode of ''Family Guy'' as an over-the-top take on his tough action guy persona.
110	* TheBigGuy: He's 6'4", and often towers over most of his castmates. Appropriately, he was cast as Michael Collins in the [[Film/MichaelCollins film of the same name]]--Collins was called "the Big Fellow" for his height. In fact, he's so tall that [[Franchise/StarWars Qui-Gon Jinn]] action figures almost throw the other figures out of scale. As Qui-Gon, he's also the only Jedi whose robe has a seam down the back. Because of his height, they couldn't make the robe out of one piece of fabric because bolts of cloth don't come that wide.
111	** They also had to spend thousands of dollars making the walls of the sets taller before they could start filming, because apparently the set designers didn't realize just how tall he was.
112	* ChronicallyKilledActor: Goes hand in hand with [[MentorOccupationalHazard being the mentor as often as he is.]] Which makes it ironic that his character in ''Film/LesMiserables1998'' is SparedByTheAdaptation.
113	* TheComicallySerious: His deep, serious voice is parodied in this ''Series/LifesTooShort'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKTh7zBIcrM sketch]], where he horribly fails at doing improv comedy.
114	* CoolOldGuy: He gets cooler and cooler by the years, from playing increasingly hardassed characters to performing comical skits in talk shows.
115	* EvilSoundsDeep: When he plays a villain.
116	* FakeAmerican: He often plays American characters, despite being Northern Irish.
117	* MentorArchetype: Many of them, such as [[Film/ThePhantomMenace Qui-Gon Jinn]], [[Film/BatmanBegins Henri Ducard]] and the father in both ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' and ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven''. Of course, [[MentorOccupationalHazard it has helped him being a]] ChronicallyKilledActor.
118	* {{Oireland}}: Subverted -- Neeson has let it be known that he will "not do Irish stereotypes"...[[RuleOfFunny unless it's funny]].
119	** Such as the ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch, "Ya Call This A House, Do Ya?" in which he played a drunken, churlish Irishman. Of course, in this case, it was [[PlayedForLaughs meant to be funny]].
120	** ...and in ''High Spirits'' when he played a horny Irish ghost with curly red hair...in green pants.
121	** ...and on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Father, The Son, and the Holy Guest Star," where he played a Catholic priest who was a former alcoholic brawler (fighting with his own father, no less).
122	* OneManArmy:
123	** His roles in ''Film/DarkMan'', ''Franchise/StarWars'', and ''Film/{{Taken}}''. Heck, even his role as Aslan qualfies seeing as how [[spoiler:he singlehandedly turned the battle against the White Witch in the good side's favor]].
124	** Not to mention his role as James in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. [[TechnicalPacifist A kindly Doctor]] who managed to travel across the [[CrapsackWorld hell of the Wasteland]] in order to bring his newborn safely to a Vault. Then 19 years later, ''did it again''.
125	* OohMeAccentsSlipping:
126	** While a wonderful actor, he might be the poster boy for this trope when attempting anything other than his native Irish. Both he and Creator/HarrisonFord have an especially JustForFun/{{egregious}} case of this in ''Film/K19TheWidowmaker'', which explains that cutaway joke on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' about kids not knowing about sex ed being as lost and confused as Liam Neeson trying to do an American accent.
127	** That said, he does normally tone his accent ''way'' down in most of his films. In real life his accent is much, much stronger and a touch harder.
128	* PapaWolf: A good bulk of his career involves this.
129	** [[Film/{{Taken}} His most famous role]] was a quite brutal version of the trope, in which an ex CIA agent goes to ''huge'' extremes to save his kidnapped daughter from being sold into prostitution.
130	** Ain't the only time, either. He's played Jean Valjean of ''Film/LesMiserables1998'', a role in which being Papa Wolf is a requirement.
131	** He's also the closest to a father figure for Anakin in ''Film/StarWarsThePhantomMenace''.
132	** In ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'', [[spoiler: this is inverted, as his ''[[ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul daughter]]'' raises bloody hellfire in his name, but also played straight in a flashback, where at her behest he brings the full force of the League of Shadows down on a HellholePrison to rescue her friend Bane]].
133	** He plays this role again in ''Film/AWalkAmongTheTombstones'', ''Film/RunAllNight'', ''Film/TheCommuter'', and ''The Marksman''.
134	* PlayingAgainstType:
135	** A mild version -- in the fact-based drama ''Five Minutes of Heaven'', the Roman Catholic Neeson played a Protestant killer (and the Protestant James Nesbitt played the Catholic brother of his victim). Both actors are actually from Northern Ireland.
136	** In ''Film/{{Widows}}'', [[spoiler:unlike his usual NobleDemon villains, he plays a cowardly wretch without a single redeeming value]].
137	** ''Film/ColdPursuit'' plays with his typical revenging action hero roles, as he definitely has all the same motivation, but is also much more of a regular guy who's comically in over his head actually trying to get his revenge.
138	* SesameStreetCred: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhDJe8IP8A0 Doing his best Count von Count impression!]]
139	* StarMakingRole: Already an established and successful actor, he shot to prominence with ''Film/SchindlersList'' which netted him Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Then ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' firmly established him as a household name.
140	* TypeCasting:
141	** He has a vocation for TheMentor -- ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'', ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'', ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans\|2010}}'', ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''...
142	** Later in his career (specifically after ''Film/{{Taken}}''), he found a second TypeCasting as a gruff AntiHero usually in law enforcement or {{vigilant\|e Man}}ism in some capacity. Enough to make "best movie where Liam Neeson kills everyone" a ''subversion'' of OverlyNarrowSuperlative.
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Context Creator / LiamNeeson