“Jurassic Park” Star ....... Dies at 78....First comment...
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Sam Neill, a smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose career moved from art film to blockbuster as he dodged velociraptors in "Jurassic Park" to playing Holly Hunter's husband in "The Piano," has died. He was 78.
In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Neill died on Monday in Sydney, according to a statement posted to the actor's social media page.
His death was "sudden and unexpected," the statement said, adding that he "remained cancer free" when he died. A cause of death wasn't specified.
"Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life," his family wrote.
Actor came to world's notice with 'Dead Calm' and 'My Brilliant Career'
Neill 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. His range was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy "Sweet Revenge" to chopping off Hunter's finger in "The Piano" to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror "Event Horizon."
In "Omen III: The Final Conflict," he played Damien the Antichrist and he also played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in "The Tudors."
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 sensationalized aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback. He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 miniseries "Merlin" and another as narrator of 2017's "Wild New Zealand."
'Jurassic Park' was his best-known film
Perhaps Neill achieved his highest level of fame in "Jurassic Park" playing paleontologist 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.
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," he told the Daily New of New York in 2001, "but I finally feel I've worked out how to be an action hero. I'm happier with Grant this time. He's gnarly and grizzled, but he looks like he knows what he's doing."
Neill grew up in Northern Ireland, then New Zealand
Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 7. He was born Nigel Neill, but told interviewers he started to go by Sam because there were too many Nigels at his school.
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's other film roles included playing a Soviet submarine officer who memorably dreams of a home in Montana in "The Hunt for Red October" and an investigator in director John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness."
On the small screen, Neill played the malign Chester Campbell in TV's "Peaky Blinders" and Thomas Jefferson in the four-hour CBS miniseries, "Sally Hemings: an American Tragedy." On Apple TV+, he was on "Invasion," playing Oklahoma Sheriff John Bell Tyson, a man late in his career searching for his purpose. In 2024 he starred opposite Annette Bening in the Peacock series "Apples Never Fall."
Actor beloved in New Zealand as an unassuming celebrity
The actor became known in New Zealand as a modest and unassuming person who didn't embrace celebrity. 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.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon mourned Neill as "one of the greats" in a statement posted to social media.
"He started out when there was barely a film industry to speak of," Luxon wrote. "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 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.
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."
He is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Early career
Neill, who was born Nigel John Dermot Neill on Sept. 14, 1947, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, didn't get exposure to acting until he was in college.
As a kid, Neill's parents were in the army, and his father's family owned a vineyard. When he was 7, Neill and his family moved to New Zealand. It was while he attended the University of Canterbury that he gained exposure to acting.
In 1971, Neill landed his first acting role in the New Zealand television film "The City of No." He was cast in several TV film roles before his being cast as the lead in the 1977 New Zealand film, "Sleeping Dogs," an action thriller film.
Following "Sleeping Dogs," Neill worked on several TV shows and films in Australia, including the TV show "The Sullivans" and the 1979 films, "The Journalist" and "Just Out of Reach."
In 1981, he starred in his first international role for "Omen III: The Final Conflict," in which he played Damien Thorn.
'Jurassic Park'
Of all the roles he's had, his portrayal of Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 film "Jurassic Park" is perhaps his most well-known. The science fiction action Steven Spielberg directed-film, based on Michael Chrichton's 1990 novel of the same name, followed a team of genetic scientists who have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. Neill's character was inspired by paleontologist Jack Horner.
In a 2022 interview with Forbes, Neill said, "Alan Grant is like an old comfortable pair of boots."
"They've seen better days, but they're really comfortable, and there's no way you'll get rid of those," he said.
Neill also reprised his character in "Jurassic Park III" and "Jurassic World Dominion."
While looking back at his film career portraying Dr. Alan Grant, the actor said that the franchise "took me completely by surprise."
"I never thought there would be another one, let alone six in total," he said. "I also never imagined that that first film would, in particular, would make a place for itself so much in popular culture. People can quote the lines. Alan Grant taking off his dark glasses to see things has become a meme. You just do them at the time, and then 30 years later, it's still part of people's lives. It's baffling, really."
'Merlin,' 'Peaky Blinders' and othe roles
Following "Jurassic Park," Neill starred in a number of films including "Bicentennial Man" alongside Robin Williams, and the 1997 science fiction horror film "Event Horizon."
He also starred in "Merlin," playing the mythical wizard, and the historical drama, "The Tudors."
In an interview with The West Australian in 2008, Neill called the role of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in "The Tudors," "immensely intriguing."
"It was six months with a character that I found immensely intriguing, with a cast that I liked very much and with a story I found very compelling."
Later in his career, Neill appeared in "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Thor: Love and Thunder." He also voiced the character, Tommy Brock, in "Peter Rabbit."
Awards and honors
Throughout his career, Neill received many awards as an actor but the award that was perhaps most meaningful to him was when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1991, which he was able to share with his father, just before he died.
"I got a letter and I took the letter and dad was in his bed on his way out and I said, 'Dad, they're giving me an OBE,'" Neill recalled in a 2017 interview with Julia Zemiro of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation iview show, "Home Delivery." "And he said, 'I'm very proud of you.'"
In 2022, Neill also earned the title of Sir as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Battle with cancer
While promoting his memoir, "Did I Ever Tell You This?," in March 2023, Neill told The Guardian that he was being treated for stage 3 blood cancer.
The previous year, he had opened up about his diagnosis, saying he is cancer free, but will continue to receive chemotherapy. While undergoing chemotherapy, he told the outlet that he had experienced "dark moments."
"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," he said. "Just pleased to be alive."
In 2022, Neill was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, "a rare, often but not always, aggressive (fast-growing) form of peripheral T-cell lymphoma," according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
According to The Guardian, Neill said he first experienced swollen glands during publicity for "Jurassic World Dominion" in March 2022 and was diagnosed with AITL not long after. The actor "received chemotherapy, but when that started to fail, he embarked on a new chemotherapy drug which he will continue to receive monthly for the rest of his life, although he is now cancer-free," the outlet reported.
In his memoir, according to The Guardian, Neill writes that he is "possibly dying" and that he "may have to speed this up."
He told the outlet that writing the book gave him "a reason to live."
"I would go to bed thinking, 'I'll write about that tomorrow … that will entertain me,'" he said. "And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn't have gone through that with nothing to do, you know."
Neill is survived by his children, Elena Neill, who he shared with ex-wife, Noriko Watanabe, and Tim Neill, who he shares with New Zealand actress Lisa Harrow.
The statement on Neill's social media account thanked the staff at St Vincent's Private Hospital, in Sydney's suburb of Darlinghurst, praising them for "their incredible care."
"More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss," the statement said.
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