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William John 'Liam' Neeson OBE, born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland on June 7, 1952, is an Oscar-nominated Irish actor.

He was raised as a Roman Catholic in the predominately Protestant and Unionist town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland and later attended Queen's University of Belfast. However, he left the university without graduating.

He turned down the 'Freedom of the town of Ballymena' offered to him by Ballymena Borough Council, because of objections made by members of the DUP about Neesons comments that he had felt like a 'second-class citizen' growing up in the town.

At age nine, Neeson began taking boxing lessons at the All Saints Youth Club. Standing six feet four inches high, he became a youth champion before a blackout during one of his boxing matches forced him to withdraw from the ring.

Since July 3, 1994, Neeson has been married to actress Natasha Richardson. They have two sons, Michéal Richard (born 1995) and Daniel Jack (born 1996). The family home is in exurban Millbrook, New York.

Career

High-profile appearances include the lead roles in Darkman, Schindler's List, Kinsey, Michael Collins, Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace and Rob Roy. Other well-known supporting roles include voicing the lion Aslan in the blockbuster fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as Dr. Lovell in Nell, Godfrey of Ibelin in Kingdom of Heaven and Henri Ducard in Batman Begins. He also has one of the main roles in K-19: The Widowmaker as Capt. Mikhail Polenin, and he has a role as Daniel, a man who just lost his wife and has to take care of his stepson that his wife Joanna left him with Love Actually. Several of these characters are mentors to the main character who die at some point in the film. He has also voiced the role of a kindly priest on The Simpsons who converted Bart and Homer to Catholicism. In a recent hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live, he very convincingly played an aging hippie trying to borrow a police dog so he can find where he put his "stash".

His performance as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List earned him very wide acclaim as well as an Academy Award nomination in 1993, but the award went to Tom Hanks for his performance in Philadelphia.

As of 2006, Neeson's next film appearance will be in the American Civil War epic Seraphim Falls with Pierce Brosnan and Angelica Huston. He is also set to star as Abraham Lincoln in a film directed by Steven Spielberg.

Neeson was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year's Honours List.

Trivia

• Liam Neeson's favourite Christmas song is "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, according to a questionnaire in the Love Actually script book (UK).
• In 1989 at the end of the PBS ID, Liam's voiceover says "This is PBS."
• Has dated actresses Helen Mirren, Julia Roberts, Brooke Shields, Barbara Streisand and singer Sinéad O'Connor. Supermodel Janice Dickinson also claims to be one of Liam's ex-lovers. [1]
• Is 6'4" tall.
• had an uncredited vocal appearance in Attack of the Clones

Filmography

External links

• The Liam Neeson Fansite, last updated in 2003

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