Liam Neeson’s career has developed in an interesting direction that was wholly unexpected. Neeson first drew wide critical acclaim with his Academy Award-nominated performance as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic Schindler’s List, and he led a strong career of acclaimed titles. Neeson would primarily work in dramas from leading filmmakers, often historical epics, while occasionally engaging with genre fare.

However, 2008’s Taken dramatically changed the direction of Neeson’s work, as he proved that he could be a compelling action star, fashioning a grizzled quality not dissimilar from Clint Eastwood. Neeson generally appears in a few action movies each year (this year he has both Blacklight and Memory), but Neeson has quietly also become a valuable supporting actor. In between action-centric star vehicles, his best work is often the films where he’s not always credited above the title. Check out these seven great Liam Neeson supporting turns.

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Gangs of New York

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Image via Miramax Films

Neeson only appears in the opening sequence of Martin Scorsese’s historical epic Gangs of New York, but he has a pivotal role that resonates throughout the story and drives Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Amsterdam Vallon. Neeson plays Amsterdam’s father “Priest,” who leads the Irish Catholic resistance gang the Dead Rabbits against the onslaught of the Protestant Confederation of American Natives and their ruthless “Bill the Butcher” (Daniel Day-Lewis). Bill brutally kills Priest.

It’s a thrilling initial set piece that sets the stage for the violent epic, and Neeson makes Priest a memorable figure. He’s compelling as one of the few men noble enough to stand up to Bill, and his loss packs an emotional punch. When Amsterdam grows infuriated with Bill’s toast to Priest’s memory later on, it’s hard not to think of Neeson’s heartbreaking final moments.

Kingdom of Heaven

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Perhaps Neeson is just really great at playing noble fathers whose death motivates their sons, but his effectiveness in Gangs of New York was replicated just a few years later in Ridley Scott’s medieval epic Kingdom of Heaven. The film centers around the blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom), whose father Barisan Godfrey of Ibelin (Neeson) introduces him to the crusades to take back the Holy Land. It’s only shortly after gaining Barisan’s respect that Godfrey succumbs to a critical injury and passes.

It’s another instance in which Neeson’s work resonates throughout, as Godfrey inspires a newfound nobility within Balian. Balian is suffering from his wife’s suicide, and Godfrey’s poetic musings about the importance of winning back Jeruselum awaken a sense of dignity within him. The version of Kingdom of Heaven that was released theatrically was a mess of both structure and tone, but the far superior director’s cut is much stronger and includes more scenes with Neeson.

Batman Begins

Liam Neeson in Batman Begins
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Heath Ledger’s all-time great work in The Dark Knight had such a momentous cultural impact that it’s easy to forget how well crafted all the villains with Christopher Nolan’s trilogy were. Neeson is downright phenomenal as the League of Shadows leader Ra’s Al Ghul, Bruce Wayne’s (Christian Bale) mentor whose sinister intentions are gradually revealed; for those unfamiliar with the comic book source material, the twist may have come as a shock. He has the important role of teaching Batman on the art of “theatricality and deception.”

Neeson brilliantly lays the groundwork for Ra’s Al Ghul’s radical views; Bruce is initially inspired by the story of his wife’s death and his desire to purge evil, but it’s only as Ra’s Al Ghul’s brutalistic tactics are revealed that he begins to question his mentor’s teachings. The subtle way the story unfolds doesn’t prevent Neeson from getting to have fun hamming it up later, as he gets to be gleefully villainous towards the third act climax.

Silence

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Silence is among the most challenging films of Scorsese’s entire body of work, and that is not something to be said lightly. It’s a film that breaks down the nature of faith and the grueling question of believing in God in a world that seems godless. Neeson’s appearance closes out the film in heartbreaking fashion. He appears as the Jesuit Cristóvão Ferreira, a mentor to Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver) that they are dispatched to feudal Japan to find.

Rodrigues has suffered through physical and emotional humiliation at the hands of the feudal lords, and the dehumanizing torture sparks doubt within his faith. The reassurance of his mentor would seemingly ease his mind and fulfill his quest, but there’s no victory to be found when he eventually reached Ferreira as he’s held captive. Ferreira has apostacated and cynically informs his young protégé that their quest is impossible and Christianity will never spread in Japan. It’s a gut punch for Rodrigues, who not only realizes his entire quest has been in vain, but is forced to argue with his father figure.

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A Monster Calls

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Image via Focus Features

Neeson has one of the most singular voices of any mainstream Hollywood actor, and it's no wonder why he was frequently cast as venerable figures of authority within historical epic roles. Neeson has done a slot of strong voiceover work, including his now iconic role as Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise and his hilarious side turn as the “Bad Cop” of The LEGO Movie. However, J.A. Bayona’s metaphorical fantasy coming-of-age story gave Neeson the chance to showcase two sides of his vocal power: the terrifying creature and the gentle storyteller.

A Monster Calls follows the sensitive 12-year-old Connor O'Malley (Lewis MacDougall) as he struggles through his mother’s (Felicity Jones) chemotherapy treatment, his dysfunctional relationship with his father (Toby Kebbell), and a miserable school experience where he’s singled out by bullies. Connor turns to stories for a sense of comfort, and he experiences dreams of a mythical creature from fantasy books over three nights who tells him fairy tale stories of perseverance, hope, and acceptance. Neeson’s sternness is the type of frank truthfulness that Connor needs in these moments, and Neeson’s cameo as Connor’s grandfather in a photograph suggests that Connor may inadvertently be drawing upon the familiar amidst the healing process.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

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Image via Netflix

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs seems to have gone through the same critical cycle that most new films from the Coen Brothers go through; initially considered an entertaining, if lesser work from the brilliant pair, its brilliance seems to unravel further with time. The film’s meditative lessons on futility and death are perhaps more potent given the possibility that it is the last collaboration between the brothers, as Joel went on to direct The Tragedy of Macbeth without Ethan. Of the six story segments in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Neeson’s featured section in “Meal Ticket” doesn’t initially stand out, as it's not quite as purely entertaining as “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” or as empathetically emotional as “The Girl Who Got Rattled.”

However, the dark fable of traveling artists helps to relate to the common themes of performance and entertainment that the Coens often center on; audiences are constantly looking for the new and exciting, but there’s no loyalty within sensationalism. Neeson appears as the traveling companion to Harry Melling’s storyteller (a man with no arms and legs), who dumps his longtime co-worker in a river when he decides a seemingly magical chicken could be his next stage show. It was an interesting departure for Neeson; he’s generally cast as a man of great intelligence, yet here is a role where he uses his physicality to play a simple-minded lunkhead.

Widows

Liam Neeson in Widows.
Image via 20th Century Fox

Widows is one of the most underrated films of the past decade, a searing depiction of the confluence of political and social tensions within modern America that also succeeds as a thrilling work of genre filmmaking. The supposed death of Neeson’s character Harry Rawlings, a veteran bank robber killed during a dangerous scheme, is what sets the plot mechanics in motion; Harry’s wife Veronica (Viola Davis) is barely given time to process her grief before her husband’s crime boss employer Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry). She recruits the other widows of Harry’s heist team to put together a crew to carry out Harry’s last plan – the robbery of notoriously corrupt power broker Tom Mulligan (Robert Duvall), whose son Jack (Colin Farrell) is running for mayor against Jamal.

Within the early moments, Davis and Neeson have engaging chemistry that’s sensitive without being melodramatic, and serves as a rare realistic portrait of intimacy between an older couple. The unsaid agreement regarding Harry’s profession is made clear, but these unspoken words are brought to the forefront when a shocking twist reveals that Harry not only survived the heist by betraying his crew, but has been unfaithful and bore a child with another woman. Neeson makes the shift between loving husband to toxic villain brilliantly and serves as a terrific antagonist throughout the emotionally draining third act.