| 1976 | Career start | |
|---|
| 1976 | | works for Lyric Theater in Belfast. First play is a two minute part in "The Risen People" .
| |
| 1978 | | works for Abby Theater in Dublin
Plays:
City Sugar, The Sea, I do not like Thee Dr. Fell, Says I Says He, Streamers.
The Colleen Dawn, Philadelphia Here I Come, Henry IV Part I,We do it for...,A Little Light Music,
Cinderella?
|
|
| 1978 | | First TV role in "The sporting Club Dinner" | |
| Early Movies | |
|---|
|  | First Movie at all: Pilgrim's
Progress (1973), several parts, one of them as Jesus Christ | |
| "I
wore a false beard. And a wig. Apparently it's still doing the rounds in
mission halls in Africa and Egypt," he said. --
On Pilgrim's Progress, The Sunday Times Magazine, Jan 1994
|
| "They actually put the cross up on a
beautiful
hill," says Liam Neeson. "It was the weirdest thing to be Christ
overlooking Belfast."
--On Pilgrim's Progress, Premiere, Oct 1989
|
| 1980 |  | First big movie role: as Gawain in Excalibur. Falls
in love with co-worker Helen Mirren | |
| In 1980 John Boorman discovered Neeson
in a
Dublin production of Of Mice and Men and cast him as Sir Gawain in
Excalibur. "It was a wonderful eye-opener," Neeson says, "just to get that
smell of a really big movie."
--Premiere, Oct 1989 |
|
"When you're from the theater," Neeson recalls, "you don't know one end
of the camera from the other. John is a true movie megalomaniac. He gave
all us actors a great grounding in the technique of filmmaking. Most
directors don't take the time to tutor. I've always been indebted to him
for that."
--Mirabella, Jan 1993
|
|
"There are a lot of flaws in the film but I think the scope and vision
of it is just breathtaking. And riding through those beautiful Irish
forests in armour on horseback was just a magical feeling."
--On Excalibur, Photoplay, June 1986 |
| It never
occurred to him that she might reciprocate his feelings. 'I'd seen Helen
in a production of Macbeth with Nicol Williamson when I was at college and
I remember thinking, God, what a really sexy woman. When I heard she was
doing Excalibur, I read these interviews that said she was a femme fatale
and devoured guys and stuff, but I also read that when she fancied someone
she imitated the way they walked. While we were making the film, Helen,
myself and a few others became acquaintances and we used to meet in pubs.
One night, from the corner of my eye I caught her imitating my walk - my
big loping walk. Something twigged. I thought, "Fuck. This woman fancies
me. Helen Mirren fancies me." And I'm like this big Irish goon. I think
I still had a pint of Guinness in my hand when the penny dropped.'
--Marie Claire, 1990 |
| At this stage Neeson began to
think seriously about moving to America. "I'd got the film bug from
working with John Boorman. I wanted to do more." He had already had small
parts in a couple of British productions, most notably as a Jesuit priest,
alongside Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro, in The Mission, a vivid saga of
religious zealotry and colonial savagery in 16th-century South America. "I
only had a few lines, but I had a good death."
-- The
Sunday Times Magazine, Jan 1994
|
| 1980 | | Moves to London to Helen Mirren's
flat | |
| "This may sound big-headed, and I don't
mean it to,
but at home I was beginning to feel like a big fish in a small pond. I
could see the limits of staying in Ireland, whereas London's got a lot to
offer: it's an international city and let's face it, as a base for film
work in Europe it's great."
-- On his move to London, Photoplay, June 1986
|
|  | Movies: Krull (1983),The Bounty (1984), The Mission (1986),
Lamb (1986), A
Prayer for the
Dying (1987), A Woman of Substance (1983) | |
 | Not all Liam's experiences on The Mission
were quite
so educational. With great gusto, he recalls his arrival in Colombia. 'My
ticket was marked London-Miami-Cartagena. The plane left Miami and arrived
a couple of hours later at what I thought was Cartagena. I got out at this
tiny little airport and stood at the baggage carousel with no luggage
coming off it. I thought "I'm at the wrong airport", and I turned to look
out of the window just in time to see the plane taking off. The pilot was
like an Irish train driver: he stopped wherever he felt like it. This kid
came up to me with a little map that showed I was about three hours' drive
from Cartagena so I said, "Can you get me a taxi?" There were about twenty
taxis outside this empty airport. All the drivers were standing around
eating and drinking. "I'm really sorry, no one will take you," he said.
"God, I'm in this film The Mission, I'm supposed to start work tomorrow,"
I said, and he said, "Aaah! La Missioni! Roberto De Niro!" Suddenly all
these taxi drivers come running over and I can have any one I want, so I
get the most comfortable, with big fur dice in the back and leopardskin
seats...' The story continues in true Irish fashion and includes bandits,
the army and tropical monsoons. Eventually Liam arrived at the Hilton
Hotel in Cartagena. In the lobby was a very worried assistant director and
Ray McAnally sitting on top of Liam's luggage and ten cardboard boxes. 'At
Heathrow Airport I was put in charge of these Portaloos for the cast and
crew to use in the jungle, and I'd forgotten all about them. "Where the
fuck have you been?" shouts Ray McAnally, "there were ten fuckin'
Portaloos, but no you!"'
--Marie Claire, 1990 |
| 1985 | | End of Relationship with Helen Mirren | |
| ... remembers the 'excruciating' tabloid
headlines
(Mirren's Lover Steps Out Of The Shadows) with greater equanimity. 'I
don't mind,' he insists, 'but I've got a wee, grey-haired mother in
Ireland who reads all that.'
-- on the press of his breaking with Helen Mirren, Elle, Sept
88
|
|
