Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson
Liam John Neeson, OBE is an actor from Northern Ireland. In 1976, he joined the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast for two years. He then acted in the Arthurian film, Excalibur. Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films; most notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in The Bountyand Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in The Mission. He landed a leading role alongside Patrick Swayze in Next of Kin...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth7 June 1952
CityBallymena, Northern Ireland
CountryIreland
I think I'm past my due date. I just feel it.
loves pigeonhole suddenly
As you know, Hollywood loves to pigeonhole all the actors and actresses, and suddenly I got 're-pigeonholed' as an action actor.
characters drawn films four people played
Well, I think I've made 44 films and only like four times I've played real characters I'm just drawn to people who have a pioneer spirit, this extraordinary energy and commitment to their cause.
I'm still a proud Irishman, of course, but I've become an American citizen. I'm very, very proud of that.
face jedi knights supposed
I'm not supposed to say anything but let's face it, Jedi knights never die.
area belfast came cinema episode harsh hours intense life lost quite reality remember seen time
It was quite an intense time in Belfast in 1977 and I remember going to see it in the cinema. It was a very, very dicey area of Belfast. And the cinema was packed. In fact, I had never seen a cinema packed in my life before that -- to see this Episode I. Not Episode I at that time. It was Episode IV. And it was unique. We all got lost in this story for two hours and came back out into the harsh reality of life in Belfast.
amazing believable created director simple technology totally
It's a simple story, yet with all the complexities of myth. The technology was so understated. I thought he (George Lucas) was an amazing director who had created this totally believable world.
corporate ethics gravitate guiding individual learn lesson light passing responsibility seems society stories takes taking tend therefore toward towards ultimately
I do tend to gravitate toward what guiding light we have. . . . If I read something that's got those ethics in it, then I go towards it. We live in such a corporate world where everyone is passing the buck, it seems to me. Therefore I like stories where the individual takes responsibility for BEING the individual, and not just for himself, but for his comrades, his society and ultimately for his country. Ultimately, we can all learn a lesson from that and not be browbeaten by the corporate world which is taking over.
lonely men practice
No man is an island, as they say. No. I've tried it. I've gone on retreats at various times in my life for three or four or five days. I was desperate to get out of there and talk to somebody. But I fly fish a lot, and I can only do that really by myself. I find I'm never lonesome when I'm on a river, far from it, but it's a lonely practice.
awards people focus
The whole awards thing is great. Why? Because the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, they put a focus on the industry, and that focus translates into people buying tickets to see movies or download films, legitimately download them. And it keeps us all at work. So I'm a big fan of award shows.
growing-up spring hero
I was always attracted to the type of cinema hero as an adolescent growing up in Ireland. Robert Mitchum springs to mind. Later on, it was Steve McQueen to a certain extent and Charles Bronson. They're these types of grizzled characters who had one foot on the side of law and order and the other foot in the bad guy's camp.
fun fighting gun
It's always fun to do the fight sequences and then to complete them, because some of them are quite complicated - with guns and so on - and there's always things that can go wrong. It's fun to shoot those things because we rehearse them very strenuously. It's fun to shoot them, and fun to know they're finished, that they're in the can so to speak.
country revenge moving
We live in an age where revenge seems to be the most important thing for individuals and countries. Why not forgive each other? Decide to accept each other's differences and move on.
sex wall school
I learned my "facts of life" on toilet walls. I'd walk up in school bathrooms and there would be crude drawings and figures engaged in sex. That's how I learned.