Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor celebrated for his roles in “Jurassic Park” and “The Piano,” died on July 13 in Sydney in what his family described as “sudden and unexpected” circumstances, NPR reported.
His family confirmed that Neill “remained cancer free” at the time of his death, though no specific cause was provided by those close to him.
“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” his family wrote in a statement following the news of his passing.
Neill had publicly disclosed in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, before announcing earlier this year that he had beaten the disease.
Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland, he moved to New Zealand at age seven and adopted the name Sam at the age of eleven.
Neill reached his greatest level of global fame playing paleontologist Alan Grant in “Jurassic Park,” starring alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough in the Steven Spielberg blockbuster.
His career spanned both prestige and popular cinema, including a Soviet submarine officer in “The Hunt for Red October” and an investigator in John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness.”
On television, Neill played the malign Chester Campbell in “Peaky Blinders,” Thomas Jefferson in the CBS miniseries “Sally Hemings: An American Tragedy,” and starred opposite Annette Bening in the Peacock series “Apples Never Fall” in 2024.
His big break came with the low-budget New Zealand film “Sleeping Dogs” in 1977, and he remained deeply connected to his adopted homeland throughout his career.
Neill was particularly beloved in New Zealand for his role as the curmudgeon Hector in “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” the 2016 film directed by Taika Waititi that became a cultural touchstone.
He narrowly avoided a very different career trajectory in the mid-1980s when he screen-tested for the role of James Bond, later saying, “You never want to be the Bond that no one likes — that’s a fate worse than death.”
Neill earned an Emmy nomination for the 1998 miniseries “Merlin” and received three Golden Globe nominations across his career for “Merlin,” “One Against the Wind,” and “Reilly: Ace of Spies.”
Away from acting, Neill operated the Two Paddocks winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island, producing pinot noir and riesling wines under that label.
He was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to film,” a title approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II, and was known publicly as a modest and unassuming figure.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon mourned Neill as “one of the greats,” writing that “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.”
Neill is survived by two sons and two daughters.
