Liam Neeson is one of the most durable leading men in Hollywood, an Irish actor who spent years as a respected dramatic performer before Taken revealed a second career as an action star that has run longer and harder than anyone predicted. He broke through with Schindler’s List (1993) and went on to a career that includes Michael Collins (1996), Les Misérables (1998), Batman Begins (2005), and Taken (2008). His Oscar nomination for Schindler’s List remains the critical landmark, but his reinvention in his late fifties as an action icon represents one of the more unlikely and bankable pivots in modern Hollywood.

On screen, Neeson works with a gravitas that arrives before he speaks, and that weight has served him equally well in period drama and airport thrillers. The towering frame, the lined face, and a voice that functions as an instrument in its own right make him one of the most immediately recognizable physical presences in the business. He has settled into his action era with an assurance that keeps audiences returning, and at this point, the particular set of skills has become one of the most dependable propositions in commercial cinema.