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Sam Neill, a versatile New Zealand actor whose career has included Oscar winners and blockbusters such as The Piano and Jurassic ParkHe died at the age of 78.
The actor’s death was announced on Monday in a statement shared on his Instagram account. No cause of death was given, but Neill was recently revealed that he is cancer free after being diagnosed with stage III angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, in 2022.
“It is very sad that the whānau of Sam Neill sharing the news of his death on Monday 13 July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by his family and passed on the honor that has been there for the rest of his life.
“The loss was sudden and unexpected but he is blessed that Sam is cancer free. He would like to thank the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their wonderful care.
“More will be shared at a later date, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they deal with this great loss.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the actor, writing on X: “Sam Neill has played a role in many of Australia’s favorite stories and has found a special place in Australian hearts. Angry and dry, thoughtful and irreverent, Sam fought his illness with the same dignity, humor and passion that powered his every performance.
Neill was born Nigel John Dermot Neill in 1947 in Omagh, Northern Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealander father who served in the British Army. Mr. Neill moved to new Zealand in 1954. He took the name Sam at the age of 12 because there were a number of Nigel’s children at his school, and: “I found that I moved around the country as easily as Sam. Nigel is often difficult.
Neill went to school and university in Christchurchbut he did not settle for action until he failed the “dangerous” year of legal studies. He began appearing in productions at the University of Canterbury, and moved to Wellington to join the Downstage Theater as an actor, where he was paid $35 a week and every meal left over from the kitchen from the food served to the audience before the show.
After small roles on local television, his breakthrough role was in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, the first New Zealand film to open in the US. He soon landed the lead role in My Brilliant Career (1979); played the devil’s son in Omen III (1981); appeared inside Andrzej Żuławski’s cult film Possession (1981); in the 1988 biopic Evil Angels (also known as A Cry in the Dark), as Lindy Chamberlain’s husband Michael opposite Meryl Streep; and The Hunt for Red October (1990). His role in Ivanhoe (1982) made Neill famous in Sweden, where the film was shown on TV every New Year’s Day for 40 years.
Neill gained international recognition in 1993 with two performances: as New Zealander Alisdair Stewart in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Piano; and as Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, a role originally offered to Harrison Ford. Neill also played Alan Grant in the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World Dominion.
Neill has made a career of playing unforgettable romantic leads and charismatic singers. He had over 150 credits over five decades, including Dead Calm, The Jungle Book, In the Mouth of Madness, Event Horizon, Bicentennial Man, The Dish and Peter Rabbit. He was one of the directors to replace Roger Moore as James Bond and screen tested in 1986but lost to Timothy Dalton.
In 2016 he starred in Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which led to small cameos in Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Neill has also worked in television, playing the corrupt Maj Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders, The Twelve, The Tudors, and episodes of The Simpsons and Rick and Morty. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for portraying spy Sidney Reilly in the 1983 mini-series Reilly, Ace of Spies.
Neill lived on a farm and winery called Two Paddocks, in the central Otago wine region. He explained that it is a “stupid waste of time and money.” He named his farm animals after friends, including Laura Dern (chicken), Kylie Minogue (duck) and Helena Bonham Carter (cow).
In 2023, Neill revealed in his book, Have I Ever Told You This? that he has been receiving treatment for a year after being diagnosed with stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. By the time his book was published his cancer was in remission, but he received monthly treatment for the rest of his life, having signed a contract with the drug company that if he was still alive after four months, the treatment would be free.
“I’m not afraid to die,” he told the Guardian in 2023, “but it would make me angry. Because I’d love ten or two years, you know? We’ve built this beautiful place, we’ve got olive and cypress trees, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I have my lovely grandchildren. I can’t care about it.”
He said “dread” any prospect of retirement. Some of them are about coming from a small place, the most unknown place in the world, far from everything you can find, and being asked to do something that affects the whole world.
Neill was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1991 for his services and an Honorary Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM) in 2007. A few years later, changes to the New Zealand honors system allowed recipients to convert the DCNZM into a knighthood, Neill received the title in 2022 and received the title in 2022.
Neill jokingly described his family life as “unchanged” because of his career. He is survived by four children and 6 grandchildren. His children are Andrew, who was placed into foster care when Neill was in his early twenties but was reunited with his father in 1994; Tim, his son with actress Lisa Harrow; Elena, her daughter and makeup artist Noriko Watanabe; and Maiko, Watanabe’s daughter from his first marriage, whom Neill raised.
