Los Angeles: Box-office heavyweight Liam Neeson - a former amateur boxer who has taken his share of haymakers in both his family and professional life, but always fought back - opens up to SUCCESS magazine about how he has managed heartaches and setbacks while still striving to be his best.
Modeling the steely demeanor that is his trademark on camera and off it, the Taken 3 star graces the February cover of the 125-year-old personal and professional development magazine, available nationwide on newsstands Tuesday. SUCCESS contributing editor Shelley Levitt scored exclusive time with Neeson, during which he shared details on the working-class upbringing that has shaped his personal values and molded him into the stoic role model that he is known as today. Despite his hard-nosed public persona, though, this intensely private star discusses candidly the tragic death of his wife, Natasha Richardson, in 2009.
Since Richardson's untimely passing, Neeson has kept busy raising their two sons. Most comforting, he tells Levitt, is the quotation from playwright Samuel Beckett that he and Richardson both hung up in their backstage dressing rooms: "Keep coming back to the plate." That, Neeson quietly says, is how he knows Richardson would want him to go on.
The February issue of SUCCESS is devoted to the subject of productivity and features the publication's 143 best-ever tips for efficiency and goal-attainment, including some surprising findings.