New Delhi
Liam Neeson is planning to hang his boots from playing the action hero. The veteran Hollywood star has been known for playing the action hero in a series of blockbusters for decades. Neeson, now 72, feels he can't 'fool the audience' anymore.
"I’m 72 – it has to stop at some stage," Neeson told People magazine. The star still performs his fight scenes but uses his stunt double – Mark Vanselow – for a few extreme stunts.
"You can’t fool audiences," he explained. "I don’t want Mark to be fighting my fight scenes for me."
Retirement from action films
Neeson revealed that he is looking at retiring from action scenes permanently by 2025. "Maybe the end of next year. I think that's it," he said. After starring in the hit 2008 action thriller Taken, Neeson reinvented himself as an unlikely action hero at the age of 56.
Neeson worked as a forklift operator for Guinness Brewery and as a truck driver before he made his debut as an actor in theater. He landed his first film role as Jesus Christ in the 1978 religious film Pilgrim's Progress.
Neeson moved from London to Los Angeles in 1986 after landing a guest role in the mega-hit series Miami Vice. He went on to star in Woody Allen's 1988 movie Husbands and Wives and 1992's Leap of Faith and Shining Through.
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Neeson almost contemplated leaving Hollywood after his films bombed at the box office but things changed in 1994 when he was cast as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning historical drama Schindler's List.
Spielberg cast Neeson after seeing him in the Broadway play Agatha Christie, which also starred the actor's future wife Natasha Richardson.
In his decades-long career, Liam Neeson has earned an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances and cemented his status as a Hollywood A-Lister.
The actor recently wrapped up filming of The Naked Gun, a reboot of the Leslie Nielsen cop comedy. "Whether I can carry it or not, I honestly don’t know," Neeson told People magazine about his role as a cop in the film.