Liam Neeson may be one of Hollywood’s most recognizable leading men, but he almost made audiences cheer another way. The 6’4″ actor started his career as a teenaged boxer in Ireland before a black out in the ring caused him to pursue other careers: first as a teacher, and then as an actor. The acting really seems to have paid off, hasn’t it?
Liam Neeson has been acting steadily since the 1970s – his first major gig was in John Boorman’s 1981 King Arthur epic Excalibur – but he didn’t find acclaim until his late 30s/early 40s, when starring roles in films like Darkman and Schindler’s List made him a recognizable commodity to studios looking for a tall, lanky, gravel-voiced leading man. His career wouldn’t even take a specific direction until the 2000s; before then he worked as a respectable dramatic actor (Michael Collins, Nell), an occasional action star (Rob Roy, The Phantom Menace) and sometimes as the straight man in mostly forgotten comedies (Leap of Faith, High Spirits).
But the Liam Neeson audiences came to fully embrace was born relatively recently: a grizzled father figure, a stoic action star, a weary man of the law drawn into situations worthy of putting on film. He began taking parts of sweeping authority – Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, Zeus in Clash of the Titans – and headlining unexpected smash hits like Taken, a crowd-pleasingly fascistic tale of an American tearing through Europe, torturing his way to preserving a wholesome family unit.
Now, casting Liam Neeson is practically a shorthand. He has reached full-on movie star status, playing variations on the person audiences perceive him as: the elder statesman, the hero, the badass. He can elevate dunderheaded potboilers like Non-Stop into modest hits, and he might just do the same for A Walk Among the Tombstones, this weekend’s new release which casts Neeson as a grizzled former detective drawn into an illicit kidnapping investigation. It’s not a great film, but Liam Neeson Liam Neesons his way through it, bringing credibility to a story that perhaps doesn’t deserve much of it.
CraveOnline, like the rest of the world, is a huge fan of Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson the actor, Liam Neeson the action star, Liam Neeson the icon. But if you want to call yourself a real Liam Neeson fan you need to be familiar with all of his best work, not just the recent action thrillers. Here we present The Essential Liam Neeson: 12 Must-See Films to prove your fandom for one of the biggest badasses on the screen today.
Have you seen them all? Did we miss any? Let us know…
Slideshow: The Essential Liam Neeson – 12 Must-See Films
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