The soft-tone, patterned blazers suited him well.
Liam Neeson walked down memory lane on Thursday’s episode of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” squirming and laughing through clips of his 1980s appearance on “Miami Vice.”
The Irish-born actor played an IRA terrorist in a 1986 episode of the show.
Neeson’s role on “Miami Vice” was motivated by Robert DeNiro, whom Neeson was visiting in New York. DeNiro set up a meeting between Neeson and casting agent Bonnie Timmerman. The meeting carried romantic undertones for Liam.
“I flirted with her, she flirted with me,” he admitted to Leno.
Maybe the flirting helped – within hours, the “Miami Vice” role was in the works. Timmerman called DeNiro’s pad and told Neeson, “If you don’t get the part, I’m quitting the business!”
He got the part, playing romantic revolutionary Sean Carroon. Sean had a fling with a detective on the show, Gina (Saundra Santiago).
But things fell apart – and the end of the episode saw Neeson’s character on the ledge of a parking garage roof, his flame pointing a gun at him.
He stares at her, those blue eyes piercing through her.
“It’s not your war, Gina,” he says.
“Don’t make me kill you! Please,” she warns, tears welling in her eyes.
He pulls a gun from his jacket.
James “Sonny” Crockett (Don Johnson) sees the gun, and he and Gina fire. Sean flops over the side of the parking garage. And there’s Liam Neeson’s character lying dead on the pavement, strategically located over parking lane paint, the gun next to his body.
“Y’know, that was my own stunt,” Neeson told Leno of the fatal fall.
Neeson’s 1980s heartthrob ways carried into his driving experiences. The “Taken” actor didn’t learn how to drive until his late 20s – while working on the movie “Excalibur” with actress Helen Mirren.
“She gave me my first lessons,” Neeson told Leno.
“In the back seat or the front seat?” Leno asked.
“Very good,” Neeson responded, smiling. “A little bit of both.”