The Essential Liam Neeson: 12 Must-See Movies

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?

Related: Download the Free B-Movies Commentary Track for ‘Taken’

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 CollinsNell), an occasional action star (Rob RoyThe Phantom Menace) and sometimes as the straight man in mostly forgotten comedies (Leap of FaithHigh Spirits).

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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.

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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


William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.

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