In 2017, Liam Neeson announced his retirement from action films and the setting aside of his “particular set of skills”.
I’m sixty-f***ing-five,” he told guests at the Toronto Film Festival. “Audiences are eventually going to go, ‘Come on’.”
What a tease. Five years on, he’s been at it again, claiming he’ll have to put the brakes on his action movie career.
The 69-year-old Ballymena man was promoting his latest thriller, Blacklight, earlier this year when he told Today: “I turn 70 this year, so I’m still getting away with it.
“I think the action movies will draw to a close — they have to. Audiences aren’t stupid, you know. They’re going to go, ‘Oh f*** this guy Liam Neeson. He’s got to be 71, 72, 73. I’ll stop at some stage.”
On Tuesday, Neeson will turn 70, and he is likely to mark his big day in Co Donegal, where he’s currently shooting his new film, In the Land of Saints and Sinners, set in a remote Irish village. He plays a newly retired assassin drawn into a lethal game of cat-and-mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. Co-starring Belfast’s Ciaran Hinds, it’s billed as a big-budget action thriller, so those fast-paced, gun-toting, villain-punching roles haven’t gone away just yet.
In fact, Neeson shows no signs of slowing down, despite his previous declarations.
Over the last few years, the prolific actor has starred in many action movies, including The Commuter, Cold Pursuit, Honest Thief, The Marksman, The Ice Road and the upcoming Retribution.
Just last month, Deadline announced he was set to star in another thriller, Thug, playing an aging gangster in San Pedro.
The synopsis says: “When he attempts to reconnect with his children to set right past mistakes, he finds that his life as a gangster is not so willing to let him go.”
Like other Hollywood heavyweights, such as Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence, Neeson’s name is enough to draw cinema-goers in.
The combination of his on-screen presence, rugged good looks, Irish charm and charismatic appeal has long made him popular with film fans.
Beginning his career as a stage actor, Neeson gravitated towards dramatic roles once he broke into movies. Parts in The Mission, The Dead Pool and Darkman brought him to the public’s attention, but it was his mournful, Oscar-nominated portrayal of Oskar Schindler in the 1993’s Schindler’s List that showed his true range as an actor.
More dramatic roles followed; Rob Roy, Michael Collins, Kinsey, Kingdom of Heaven. He ventured into a lighter genre with Love Actually, and the superhero world with Batman Begins.
But in 2008, his career changed trajectory when he signed up to play retired CIA agent Bryan Mills in the modest-budget action film Taken.
It was clever casting — a well-known, serious actor who could bring the right amount of gravitas to the role, along with his loyal following of fans.
Neeson was in his 50s in his first outing as Mills, a desperate father who darts frantically around Paris trying to rescue his daughter from traffickers.
The movie was something of a surprise hit with critics and cinemagoers alike. What caught many people off guard was how effortlessly Neeson slipped into action hero mode, giving Bruce Willis and Matt Damon a run for their money. The film also spawned that famous phone call moment: “If you’re looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money… but what I do have are a very particular set of skills.
“If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you.”
Those words are still often quoted by fans and have spawned countless memes since.
Neeson’s status as kickass king consolidated, he reprised his role as Mills in Taken 2 and 3, and went on to star in a rake of action movies, including Unknown, The Grey, Non-Stop and A Walk among the Tombstones. Some were spectacular (The Grey), others solid enough.
But he refused to let himself be pigeon-holed either, popping up as the voice of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise.
He also landed major roles in The Dark Knight Rises, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and the Owen McCafferty-penned Ordinary Love, filmed in Belfast.
More recently, he sent social media crazy when he appeared as a guest in the third and final series of the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls.
His turn as a PSNI officer having to deal with the boring monologues of Uncle Colm (Kevin McAleer) delighted fans of the show, but it was his pained expression in the Good Friday Agreement voting booth that reminded viewers of the power of his craft. No words were necessary; his face said it all.
Neeson is undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s biggest draws and most popular actors. Men admire his masculinity, women his gentleness and charm. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet him several times, and I always came away feeling I had been in the presence of a bona fide superstar. That rarely happens.
Whatever he chooses to do next — action, drama, more comedy — there’s plenty of fuel in the tank to see him through this coming decade. His particular set of skills will keep him right.
Happy birthday, Mr Neeson.
