Liam Neeson



"...and [The Hero] is dating the daughter of the stern older admiral that hates his gut who is played by Liam Neeson because fuck you, he was in Schindler's List, and that means that he can do all the dopey action movies he wants and you don't get to say shit about it."

- Moviebob on his role in Battleship.

"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."

- The Drew Carey Show, first episode

Liam Neeson 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. Also said to have been the inspiration behind Captain Carrot of Discworld fame.

His latest roles are Dr Martin Harris in the thriller Unknown and John Ottway in the wilderness survival thriller The Grey.

Neeson was married to Natasha Richardson until 2009, when she died in a tragic skiing accident.

This actor provides examples of:

 * 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.
 * Chronically Killed Actor: Which makes it ironic that his character in Les Misérables is Spared By the Adaptation.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: See above. (And don't forget to come back down for the rest of the article. Eventually.)
 * Hot Dad: In real life (see above) and on film.
 * Even invoked In Universe as the player character's father in Fallout 3.
 * Oireland: Subverted -- Neeson has let it be known that he will "not do Irish stereotypes".
 * Except on 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).
 * Mean Character Nice Actor: He's been getting cast as either antiheroes or outright villains recently. Of course, he's known in Real life as being one of the sweetest men in the world.
 * Nice Guy: In Real life and often in Films.
 * One Man Army: His roles in Darkman, Star Wars, and Taken. Heck, even his role as Aslan qualfies seeing as how.
 * Not to mention his role as James in Fallout 3. A kindly Doctor who managed to travel across the hell of the Wasteland in order to bring his newborn safely to a Vault. Then 19 years later, did it again.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * You mean he's not like that in Real Life?!
 * Also, any time he plays the villain. It's not very common..
 * 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 Misérables, a role in which being Papa Wolf is a requirement.
 * Retroactive Recognition: Played a minor role in the So Bad Its Good Cult Classic Krull.
 * 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
 * The Troubles: Has done roles encompassing both the all-Ireland Troubles of 1918-1923 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 a not widely seen abroad but was a huge, huge hit with Irish viewers.
 * Typecasting: 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...
 * In Batman Begins it's used to make The Reveal more surprising.