10 Actors Who Perfectly Played Both Heroes And Villains

8. Liam Neeson - Taken & Batman Begins

It's pretty easy to sneer at Taken as an identikit Man Under Pressure action movie - and also as the point where Liam Neeson sold out - but neither would be true. The reality is that Taken set the model for other films to copy and it's good precisely because Neeson didn't disrespect the material. He might have seen it as an opportunity to learn another language, chiefly (by his own admission), but his performance as Bryan Mills is subtle and compelling.

He's a man pushed to the edge by extreme, unthinkable context and though his past suggests he's dealt in government-sponsored murk before, he's a true hero in the same way James Bond is. Only he has more personal investment for us to get behind. That's why the defining image of Neeson's career will probably be that one phone call.

In contrast, his Ra's Al-Ghul is all about deception and performance, which Neeson's complex performance sells brilliantly. He appears as a mentor, but then as his identity is stripped back he emerges as an old-school, almost Bondian villain intent on destroying Gotham. He was also the perfect foil for Christian Bale's fledgling Batman, which is a hell of an endorsement given what he became.