Oh, shit. You're right. It goes back further than that, but it's not the sudden rise I thought it was. He was doing two or three jobs a year until about 2005, when he did a bunch of stuff, then almost nothing in '06 and '07, then four or five jobs a year since. Natasha Richardson died suddenly after a ski accident in '09.

Wikipedia just says "Following a noticeable lull in his acting career, Neeson starred in the 2008 hit Taken, which brought his image back into the public eye...."

My new theory is that Irish Intelligence saw him in Batman Begins and recruited him for a two-year stint as an international super spy.

And then Blofeld murdered his wife on that ski slope.