Lewis: No, now I'm curious. Let's say you're going to prison for a long time. Plus, your parents? Very understanding. Who's your cellmate?
Oswald: ...Liam Neeson.
Liam John Neeson (born 1952) is a multi-award winning actor originally from
Stroke Country. Has a long and multi-faceted career, from serious drama (as Oskar Schindler in
Schindler's List) to fantasy (the voice of Aslan in
The Chronicles Of Narnia) to action (Bryan Mills in
Taken) to Sci-Fi (Qui-Gon Jinn in
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace), to historical film (
Rob Roy,
Michael Collins). Recently voiced Fujimoto, the dad of the eponymous character in
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Also said to have been the inspiration behind Captain Carrot of
Discworld fame.
His latest roles are Dr Martin Harris in the thriller
Unknown, John Ottway in the wilderness survival thriller
The Grey, and Bryan Mills in
Taken 2, the sequel to the first film.
Neeson was married to Natasha Richardson between 1994 and 2009, when she died in a tragic skiing accident.
Also, he doesn't look like his photo anymore. But we like to keep it there. Looks close enough, though...
This actor provides examples of:
- Badass: Has played quite a few of them, most notably Qui Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace and Bryan Mills in Taken.
- The Big Guy: He's 6'4", and often towers over most of his castmates.
- Appropriately, he was cast as Michael Collins in the film of the same name-Collins was called "the Big Fellow" for his height.
- In fact, he's so tall that 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.
- 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.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: His deep serious monotone voice is parodied in this Lifes Too Short sketch Link
. - Chronically Killed Actor: Which makes it ironic that his character in Les Miserables 1998 is Spared by the Adaptation.
- The Comically Serious
- Even the Guys Want Him: See above. (And don't forget to come back down for the rest of the article. Eventually.)
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: He's been getting cast as either brutal antiheroes or outright villains recently. Of course, he's known in Real life as being one of the sweetest men in the world.
- Oireland: Subverted — Neeson has let it be known that he will "not do Irish stereotypes"...unless it's funny.
- Such as the Saturday Night Live sketch, "Ya Call This A House, Do Ya?" in which he played a drunken, churlish Irishman. Of course, in this case, it was meant to be funny.
- ...and in High Spirits when he played a horny Irish ghost with curly red hair...in green pants.
- ...and on The Simpsons 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).
- One-Man Army: His roles in Dark Man, Star Wars, and Taken. Heck, even his role as Aslan qualfies seeing as how he singlehandedly turned the battle against the Witch in the good side's favor.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: While a wonderful actor, he might be the poster boy for this trope when attempting anything other than his native Irish. Both he and Harrison Ford have an especially egregious case of this in K19: The Widowmaker.
- That said, he does normally tone his accent way down in most of his films. In real life his accent is much, much stonger and a touch harder.
- Papa Wolf: His role in Taken 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.
- Ain't the only time, either. He's played Jean Valjean of Les Miserables 1998, a role in which being Papa Wolf is a requirement.
- Playing Against Type: 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.
- And then there's Taken, where Liam Neeson plays a Jack Bauer expy.
- Also, any time he plays the villain. It's not very common. This is specifically why he was chosen to be Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins, because they thought it would shock fans that Liam was the true villain.
- Sesame Street Cred: Doing his best Count von Count!
- So My Kids Can Watch: He signed onto Clash of the Titans solely because his two sons were into Classical Mythology and thought it would be cool to see their dad play Zeus.
- Stroke Country: He was born and raised in Northern Ireland.
- The Troubles: Has done roles encompassing both the all-Ireland Troubles of 1919-1923 and the Northern Ireland Troubles of 1969-1998.
- In Ireland, Neeson is primarily known not for Schindler's List, or even Star Wars, but for Michael Collins, which was not widely seen abroad but was a huge, huge hit with Irish viewers, since Collins is often considered a national hero there.
- Type Casting: He has a vocation for The Mentor — The Phantom Menace (where he's The Obi-Wan for Obi-Wan Kenobi himself!), Batman Begins, Kingdom of Heaven, Gangs of New York, Clash of the Titans, Chronicles of Narnia...
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