Liam Neeson Biography
Casual labourers Bernard Neeson and Ketherine Brown had their third child, a boy, on June 7 1952 in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland and they immediately named him Liam John Neeson. For his education, Neeson was enrolled at the Queen's University Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland where he majored in physics and computer science.
As a child Neeson was very active and this led his to participate in many of the extra-curricular activities at his schools from acting and playing football to joining a neighbourhood training facility to nurture a love for boxing. Outside school he was a regular on stage at several theatres where he was also enrolled as a trainee, some of these were the Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
Even though Neeson’s interests were as many as they were varied, he was not so excellent in all of them. His try outs at football were cut short when a team selection process deemed that he was not as qualified as his peers in the team. Neeson's first attempt at acting was taken as a joke but after reciting a couple of his lines he discovered that maybe this was his calling, and he was right. Still in high school at the time, Neeson took up acting seriously and he rose to become one of the best acts not only in his drama club at school but also at the local theatres that he frequented.
Neeson’s career breakthrough came in 1978 after numerous disappointments at auditions and working low paying jobs to finance his upkeep. Patience and persistence paid off when an answer to casting calls for the film Pilgrim's Progress was accepted and he was given the lead role of Jesus Christ. This film received fair media attention and Neeson was thrown to attention, this new found fame came with more booking for films that would premiere in the early 80’s.
Next Neeson was seen in the films Excalibur, Merlin and the Sword, Krull, The Bounty, Ellis Island, Duet for One, A Prayer for the Dying, High Spirits, The Dead Pool, The Good Mother, Satisfaction, and Next of Kin all in the 80’s decade.
With the coming of the 1990’s, Neeson had even more films to his name including Darkman in 1990, The Big Man, Under Suspicion, Husbands and Wives, Leap of Faith, Shining Through, Deception, Before and After, Michael Collins, Les Misirables, and Rob Roy. In the year 1999 Neeson had his biggest career gig yet, this came with a selection to cast in the popular Star Wars sequels. After the premier of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace with Neeson in the role of Qui-Gon Jinn, he was greatly applauded and nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor.
In 2002, Neeson reprised his role in the film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and in 2011 he will feature in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Other popular films that have featured Neeson are Kingdom of Heaven, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Clash of the Titans.
Neeson is currently filming for Wrath of the Titans in the reprised role of Zeus, the continuation film to Clash of the Titans will be in box offices in 2012.
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