Actor Liam Neeson was born 73 years ago as William John Neeson in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, is a widower and has 2 sons.
Liam started boxing lessons when he was 9 years old and succeeded in winning some titles, but quit when he was 17. As a teenager, he performed in theatrical productions held at school. He later went to university where he studied computer science and physics, but left to start working in a brewery plus various other jobs. Liam also went to a teacher training college for 2 years and another 2 years stage acting.
Neeson’s big screen debut was in the 1978 film ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. Until 1993, Liam acted in several films, plays and TV productions including ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Excalibur’, ‘The Bounty’, ‘The Mission’, ‘Suspect’ and ‘The Dead Pool’, amongst others.
Liam rose to prominence in 1993 when he was offered a leading role in the famous movie by Steven Spielberg ‘Schindler’s List’. Due to the enormous success of this movie, Liam became a ‘sought-after’ actor and continued gaining popularity and starring in significant films like ‘Rob Roy’, ‘Michael Collins’, ‘Les Miserables’, ‘The Haunting’ and ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’.
In the last 2 decades, Neeson starred in about 70 movies and 24 TV productions, including voicing animated movie/video game characters and narrating documentary films as well as a children’s book ‘The Polar Express’. This year, he is expected to be starring in another 6 films which are: ‘The Naked Gun’ (to be released in August); ‘Cold Storage’, ‘The Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky’, ‘Hotel Tehran’, ‘4 Kids walk into a Bank’ (release dates still unknown) and ‘Moongoose’ which is currently undergoing filming.
During his long career, Liam won 4 awards, all for Best Actor in the movies ‘Schindler’s List’, ‘Michael Collins’ and ‘Kinsey’. He was also awarded with an honorary doctorate, honoured with an Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award, a Performing Arts Award as well as a Distinguished Service for the Irish Abroad Award. In addition, in the year 2000 he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
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