Actor Sam Neill, who starred in My Brilliant Career and Jurassic Park, has died aged 78.
A post made to his social media account on Monday afternoon said he had died in Sydney “surrounded by his family”.
“The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free,” the statement, posted to Instagram, said.
Sam Neill has died. (ABC News: Greg Nelson)
Neill first rose to fame in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, before going on to star in My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park, The Piano, The Dish and Possession among other films.
He was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s — a list that includes Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong.
In 2023, Neill revealed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in early 2022.
He entered remission later that year after a rare anti-cancer drug worked, but needed ongoing infusion treatment.
He announced in April he was cancer-free.
The actor was also knighted in 2022, becoming Sir Sam Neill.
“I said I didn’t want the title for 10 or 12 years,” he said in 2023.
“Then when I thought I was dying a couple of years ago I thought, ‘Oh bugger it, I may as well go out with the title,’ so I changed my mind.”
Sam Neill revealed his cancer diagnosis in 2023, about a year after he entered remission. (Australian Story: Erin Semmler)
Tributes flow for ‘one of the greats’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today said Neill “earned a special place in Australian hearts”.
“Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance,” he said in a statement on X.
“He will be much mourned and long remembered. May he rest in peace.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also released a tribute to Neill on Monday, describing him as one of the country’s “greatest cultural exports”.
“Sir Sam Neill was one of the greats. He started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of,” he said in a statement posted on X.
“For more than fifty years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today.
“His work will be watched and loved long after all of us. Our thoughts are with his family and friends tonight. Rest in Peace.”
Sam Neill with Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern at the Jurassic Park premiere in Washington DC in 1993. (Getty: Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media)
Magda Szubanski also posted an emotional tribute to the actor online.
“I’ve just heard the news about Sam and, like everyone else, I’m absolutely shocked and devastated,” she said.
“When I spoke to him not long ago, he was cancer-free and really happy and excited about life.
“This is just devastating and he’s just a one-off, such a talented, classy, beautiful, wry, warm human being. [A] really lovely man, and I’m just very sad for all who loved him and there are so many of us.
“God bless you Sam, I miss you very much.”
Adam Ross from the Australian Film Critics Association said Neill was one of the most “personable and likeable” stars in the history of cinema.
“It’s not an accident, his success. An extraordinarily versatile performer but when he did the thing he did, which is be a sensible and relatable person, you couldn’t take your eyes off him,” he said.
“What he did with [Jurassic Park] bucked against Hollywood casting at that point in time — he offered a version of masculinity that was so personable and protective.
“Sam was one of those generous stars that wanted to lend a hand to stars on the way up.
“If a man ever looked better in a fedora, I haven’t seen it.”
Sam Neill with Nicole Kidman on the set of Dead Calm in 1989. (Getty Images: Michael Ochs)
The Screen Producers Australia organisation also released a tribute, describing Neill as “one of the screen industry’s most respected and enduring talents”.
“Australian producers were privileged to work alongside Sam on so many landmark productions,” CEO Matthew Deaner said.
“His contribution to Australian storytelling and to our screen culture is immeasurable, and his legacy will continue to inspire audiences and the industry for generations to come.”
A star-studded screen career
Neill’s range as an actor was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy Sweet Revenge to chopping off Holly Hunter’s finger in The Piano to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror Event Horizon.
Neill at the 57th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin in 2007. (Reuters: Hannibal Hanschke)
The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong’s 1979 film My Brilliant Career, which also introduced Judy Davis.
He later appeared in Phillip Noyce’s Dead Calm, a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.
Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi’s Plenty and — again for Schepisi — in A Cry in the Dark, a film about the sensationalised aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback.
Sam Neill with Meryl Streep at the Cannes Film Festival in France in 1989. (Reuters: Remy Le Morvan/File)
He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 mini-series Merlin and another as narrator of 2017’s Wild New Zealand.
He perhaps achieved his highest level of fame in Jurassic Park, playing palaeontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs.
He co-starred alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough in the Steven Speilberg directed hit.
Sam Neill with Susan Sarandon and Rainn Wilson at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019. (Reuters: Mario Anzuoni)
His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: “Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?”
Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn’t return for The Lost World: Jurassic Park II in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022.
“It’s probably a little late to learn these things, but I finally feel I’ve worked out how to be an action hero,” he told the Daily News of New York in 2001.
A love for wine and the land
Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island and he was sent to boarding school in Christchurch.
After college, he took the lead in Sleeping Dogs in 1977 — the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade.
Neill was also a vintner and under his Two Paddocks brand, he produced pinot noir and riesling wines from his winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island.
On social media, he often posted images of his farm animals, many of them affectionately named after celebrities and friends, like Laura Dern the chicken, Kylie Minogue the duck and Helena Bonham Carter the cow.
His memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? came out in March 2023 and he was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to film” — a title approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” Neill told The Guardian in 2023, referring to his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends.“
Australian Story will pay tribute to Sam Neill and his Brilliant Careers tonight, June 13.
ABC/AP
