[5] 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 took blockbuster roles portraying Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins (2005), and Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia trilogy (2005–2010).

[20] His interest in acting and decision to become an actor were also influenced by Ian Paisley, founder of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), into whose Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster he sneaked.

[23] After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena, where he worked in a variety of casual jobs, such as a forklift operator at Guinness and a lorry driver.

[27] In 1980, filmmaker John Boorman saw him on stage as Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men and offered him the role of Sir Gawain in the Arthurian film Excalibur.

[28] Between 1982 and 1987, he starred in five films, most notably with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in 1984's The Bounty and Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons in 1986's The Mission.

Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times praised his ability to be a leading man writing, "Neeson, tall and grand, makes an effortless hero as Rob Roy".

[36] Todd McCarthy of Variety praised his performance writing, "Neeson is a compulsive dynamo as Collins, with the actor seizing his part with a passion and boldness utterly in keeping with the character’s approach to life and his cause".

Writing of Neeson's performance, Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "[He] plays the role with the sure physical authority and profound decency that are fundamental to Valjean's character" adding, "With a first-rate cast and a venerable storytelling style, it fluently condenses Victor Hugo's epic novel and retrieves some of its suspenseful momentum.

Neeson narrated the 2001 documentaries Journey into Amazing Caves, a short film about two scientists who travel around the world to search for material for potential cures; and The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Adventure.

[51] In 2003, he played a recently widowed writer in Richard Curtis's romantic comedy ensemble Love Actually (2003) acting alongside Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, and Laura Linney.

[56] Neeson received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama losing to Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator (2004).

He portrayed Godfrey of Ibelin in Ridley Scott's epic adventure Kingdom of Heaven, Ra's al Ghul, one of the main villains in Christopher Nolan's action film Batman Begins;[59] and Father Bernard in Neil Jordan's adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel Breakfast on Pluto.

[61][62] In The Simpsons episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star" (2005), he voiced the kindly priest who (briefly) converts Bart and Homer to Catholicism.

[66] In the director's commentary of the 2007 Transformers DVD, Michael Bay said he had told the animators to seek inspiration from Neeson in creating Optimus Prime's body language.

Neeson appeared as Alistair Little in the BBC Northern Ireland/Big Fish Films television drama Five Minutes of Heaven, which tells the true story of a young Protestant man convicted of murdering a Catholic boy during The Troubles.

Neeson plays a retired CIA operative from the elite Special Activities Division who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped.

That year he also narrated the documentary Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity and again lent his voice to Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).

[79] In late 2011, Neeson was cast to play the lead character, a journalist, in a new album recording and arena production of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds.

He also appeared, uncredited, as God in the BBC2 series Rev.. Neeson stars in the 2014 film A Walk Among the Tombstones, an adaption of the best-selling novel of the same name, in which he plays former cop Matthew Scudder, a detective hired to hunt the killers of a drug dealer's wife.

During Super Bowl XLIX, Supercell did a Clash of Clans commercial with Neeson playing the game as "AngryNeeson52" and vowing revenge on his opponent "BigBuffetBoy85" while waiting for his scone at a bakery.

[83] Besides The A-Team, Unknown, The Grey, Non-Stop, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night, The Commuter and Retribution, other recent action films starring Neeson have included Cold Pursuit (2019), Honest Thief (2020), The Marksman (2021), The Ice Road (2021), Blacklight (2022), Memory (2022), In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2024) and Absolution (2024).

In 2016, Neeson reunited with director Martin Scorsese with the drama an adaptation of the novel Silence starring alongside Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver.

[95] In January 2015, he repeated his views, calling U.S. gun laws a "disgrace" in an interview with Emirati newspaper Gulf News when replying to a question about the Charlie Hebdo shootings earlier that month.

"[96] In 2014, Neeson protested against the anti-carriage horse campaign of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said he would outlaw horse-drawn carriages in Central Park once he took office.

He wrote an opinion page published in The New York Times citing the carriage trade as a safe one for employees, horses, and tourists, and noted it was a livelihood for many immigrants.

[97] Neeson narrated a video for Amnesty International in favour of the legalisation of abortion in Ireland, which some conservative and pro-life commentators claimed was "anti-Catholic".

[107][108][109] On 18 March 2009, Richardson died when she suffered a severe head injury in a skiing accident at the Mont Tremblant Resort, northwest of Montreal.

[127] In February 2019, Neeson gained public and media controversy after a press junket interview he conducted with The Independent while promoting Cold Pursuit, a film about a father seeking revenge for his son's murder.

[141] Following the controversy, Neeson wrote a letter to the council, stating; "I will always remain very proud of my upbringing in, and association with, the town and my country of birth, which I will continue to promote at every opportunity.