Biography
William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, two Tony Awards and one Volpi Cup. With a film career spanning more than 40 years, Neeson is regarded as one of Ireland's greatest film actors. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $11.7 billion worldwide. Neeson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000.
Neeson made his film debut in 1978 with Pilgrim's Progress followed by early roles in Excalibur (1981), The Bounty (1984), The Mission (1986), The Dead Pool (1988), and Husbands and Wives (1992). He rose to prominence portraying Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama Schindler's List (1993) for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination. He played leading man roles in drama films such as Nell (1994), Rob Roy (1995), Michael Collins (1996), and Les MisΓ©rables (1998). He took blockbuster roles portraying Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I β The Phantom Menace (1999), Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins (2005), and Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy (2005β2010).
Neeson acted in films such as the historical drama Gangs of New York (2002), the romantic comedy Love Actually (2003), the biographical drama Kinsey (2004), the erotic thriller Chloe (2009), the religious drama Silence (2016), the fantasy film A Monster Calls (2016), the crime thriller Widows (2018), the anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), and the romantic drama Ordinary Love (2019).