Liam Neeson

Irish actor Liam Neeson is known for his brainy yet brawny persona in movies like Schindler's List (1993, directed by Steven Spielberg) and Michael Collins (1996, with Julia Roberts). Neeson was nominated for an Oscar for his role as heroic World War II businessman Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List and it put him on the A-list of stars. In 1999 he secured his place in cinema history as the Jedi knight Qui-Gon Jinn, in the blockbuster Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace. His other films include the early Sam Raimi thriller Darkman (1990, with Frances McDormand), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002, with Harrison Ford), Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002, with Leonardo DiCaprio) and Love Actually (2003, starring Hugh Grant). He's also appeared with Christian Bale in the Batman movie Batman Begins (2005), and voiced Aslan the lion in the C.S. Lewis-inspired Narnia films The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008, starring Ben Barnes).

Extra credit: Neeson was once an amateur boxing champ in Northern Ireland... Neeson married actress Natasha Richardson in 1994... In his 2004 film, Kinsey, he portrayed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey... According to the Internet Movie Database, Neeson once "worked as a forklift operator for Guinness."