Liam Neeson retiring from action films - and the septuagenarians who should follow suit

We're looking at you Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford

Liam Neeson had said that he will step back from action roles. AP

At the tender of age of 68 and a half, Liam Neeson has decided that it may be time for him to step back from action roles.

Having spent the best part of his career playing hardened heroes in high-octane films such as Taken, The A-Team, Run All Night, Non-Stop and The Grey, Neeson has said that the end is nigh.

In an interview with ET ahead of the release of his latest film, The Marksman, Neeson said: "I'm 68 and a half. 69 this year. There's a couple more I'm going to do this year – hopefully, Covid allowing us – there's a couple in the pipeline, and then I think that will probably be it. Well, unless I'm on a Zimmer frame or something."

That's not to say he doesn't still get a thrill from the whole thing. "I love doing 'em. I love beating up guys half my age," he worryingly admits. But a revelatory moment during the filming of his next film, Blacklight, may have forced him to admit that the writing is on the wall.

"I've just finished one in Australia and I had a fight scene with a kid -– lovely, sweet actor called Taylor – and halfway through the fight I looked up. I was breathless and it didn't cost him a cent, and I said: 'Taylor, what age are you?' He said: ’25.’ "I said: 'That's the age of my eldest son.’"

We can only support Neeson's decision to step aside and make space for some some more sprightly actors. And might we recommend that these guys do the same?

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone will celebrate his 75th birthday on July 7, but that hasn't stopped him from taking on those action roles. In 2019, nearly 40 years after debuting as the all-action Rambo, Stallone reprised the role for one final mission in Rambo Lost Blood.

Meanwhile, the Rocky saga spawned seven sequels, although the Italian Stallion claimed in 2008 that he had hung up his boxing gloves for good. This gives him all the more time to focus on mumbling his way through the fourth installment of The Expendables, which is due for release in 2022, by which time Stallone will be nearly 80. Here, at least, he gets to play with others in his age group.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Despite his success in the political sphere, Arnold Schwarzenegger just can't leave his action hero days behind him. In 1982, when he was still a bodybuilder with acting aspirations, Schwarzenegger starred as Conan the Cimmerian in Conan the Barbarian, and rumours abound that the 73-year-old is due to reprise the role in a third installment of the franchise.

Even if that doesn't come to fruition, he is likely to star alongside his old (pun intended) friend Sylvester Stallone in the next Expendables film, and no doubt has a few more Terminator appearances left in him.

Bruce Willis

Nobody plays the long-suffering, hard-edged, wry hero quite like Bruce Willis, who is a relative spring chicken in the action stakes at only 65 years old. He, too, has refused to let his advanced years slow him down, and has a numbers of action roles in the pipeline, including a reprisal of his Die Hard character John Maclane, in the sixth installment of the franchise.

Described as a sequel-prequel, half of the film will follow a 20-something John McClane in 1976 as he’s just getting started in the NYPD, with the second half focused on Bruce Willis as a 60-year-old version of the character who has, needless to say, still got it.

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford first appeared as Indiana Jones in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark and is set to reprise the role in a fifth and final installment of the series, due out in July 2022 (which will neatly coincide with his 80th birthday).

In a 2013 interview with the BBC, Ford said it was "perfectly appropriate" for him to return as the adventurer.

"We've seen the character develop and grow over a period of time and it's perfectly appropriate and OK for him to come back again with a great movie around him," he said at the time, stressing that Indiana Jones did not have to be so action-orientated.

"To me, what was interesting about the character was that he prevailed, that he had courage, that he had wit, that he had intelligence, that he was frightened and that he still managed to survive. That I can do."