10 Actors That Really Need To Stop Repeating Themselves

Ever since his unlikely reinvention as one of cinema's most popular action heroes almost a decade ago, Liam Neeson has frequently returned to the well in the interim and kicked a lot of a** and taken a lot of names in the process. Yet having recently turned 65, there's only so much longer he can keep this up, as Taken 3 proved with some horrendously-edited action scenes that pointed out the Irishman's aversion to being seen running on camera.

In the wake of Taken's success, Neeson's career has largely been split into three distinct parts; that of the ageing bada** (Non-Stop, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night), voice work (the Narnia franchise, The Nut Job, The Lego Movie, A Monster Calls) and supporting roles in effects-laden genre movies (Battleship, the Titans series, The A-Team).

Given his recent penchant for more commercial fare it would be easy for people to forget that Neeson made his name as an acclaimed dramatic actor, one that has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA, three Golden Globes and two Tonys.

Now officially old enough to qualify for a pension, perhaps now is the time for Neeson to step away from increasingly-generic action thrillers and lend his undoubted gravitas to a wider array of projects. It can't be a coincidence that working with Martin Scorsese on Silence resulted in one of the actor's best performances in a long time.