Liam Neeson will forever be grateful to his family who “pulled together” after the death of his wife Natasha Richardson in 2009.

The Parent trap The actress was only 45 years old when she died of a brain hemorrhage following a skiing accident. “It was terrible,” Neeson, 72, says in the new issue of PEOPLE.

The actor who met Richardson in 1993 while working on the Broadway production of Anna Christie and married her in 1994, suddenly found herself a single father to her two young teenagers, Micheál and Daniel, now 29 and 28 years old respectively.

At the time, his main focus was “making sure they were OK,” Neeson recalls. That and working. Neeson, who was raised in Northern Ireland by parents of modest means, says he felt “that the Irish working class just had to take whatever job became available.”

His mother-in-law, Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave, 87, and sister-in-law Joely Richardson, 59, came to help. “Everyone just pulled together. “Vanessa and Joely were extraordinary,” he recalls. “We were lucky in a lot of ways.”

Fifteen years later, Neeson remains close to his sons, who live near their father in New York. Fly fishing used to be a popular pastime, but these days it's more about watching a movie together or watching TV (Nicole Kidman's Netflix hit). The perfect couple was Dad's youngest favorite).

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Neeson also starred alongside Micheál in the 2020 comedy Made in Italy. The fact that they are carrying on the family tradition would make his late wife very happy, says Neeson: “I think Natasha would be proud. I hope so.”

In this week's issue, the Oscar-nominated star of Schindler's List and the star Wars The franchise also chronicles his iconic career and tells how he became an action star in mid-life thanks to the 2009 film Taken.

“It just seemed to have touched something in the psychological nerve of the cinema audience,” he says.

His latest work in the action genre is absolutiona drama about a simple Boston criminal and boxer diagnosed with CTE. While he struggles to accept his new reality, he wants to make amends with his family while also settling scores with some very evil men.

absolution hits theaters November 1st.

For more on Liam Neeson, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.