Liam Neeson has a net worth of $75 million. A Hollywood superstar with a tragic past – it sounds like something from a movie, but the actor who first won international acclaim in Schindler's List is living the role rather than playing it. Two years ago, Neeson's actress wife, Natasha Richardson, died after a skiing accident in Canada. Since then, the father of two teenage sons, Michael and Daniel, has sought comfort in work, appearing in a string of movies, including the action thriller Unknown, which has just been released. At the grand age of 58, he is also expected to appear in a sequel to Taken, the movie that first unleashed the action hero in him. “I’m a single parent now. I’ve got bills to pay,” he said recently. “Since my wife died, I’ve certainly concentrated on bigger-budget films.” Born and raised in Ballymena, Co Antrim, Neeson was called Liam after his local priest. But his decision to become an actor was influenced by another big man – Ian Paisley, the firebrand Protestant politician, whose church the Catholic Neeson would sneak into. He has said of Paisley: "He had a magnificent presence and it was incredible to watch this 6ft-plus man just Bible-thumping away." Neeson went to Queen's University in 1971 to read physics and computer science, then returned to Ballymena, doing a variety of casual jobs, from working as a fork-lift operator at Guinness to driving trucks. In 1976, he joined the Lyric Theatre in Belfast before moving to Dublin and the famous Abbey Theatre. His first break in films came in 1981, when John Boorman offered him the part of Gawain in Excalibur. He has made dozens of movies since then, grossing $5.7 billion at the box office. Back in 2006, he was said to be earning £5m-£9m a film. He lives in New York state, in a luxury home set on 16 acres.

Earnings & Financial Data