A veteran of Australia and New Zealand’s home-grown film industries — who went on to achieve international stardom as a Tyrannosaurus-trumping boffin — Sam Neill forged a prolific 94-film career.
A trailblazer who first arrived on the international stage in NZ’s first film to achieve global acclaim, Sleeping Dogs, Neill veered seamlessly between massive productions, like the Jurassic Park blockbuster franchise and critically lauded local productions, such The Piano and 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
The actor, who built a career on a largely understated, laconic delivery, passed away in Sydney on Friday surrounded by family.
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“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” a statement on his Instagram said.
“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.
“The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care.
Early life
Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in the Northern Ireland city of Omagh, where his father — a second-generation New Zealander — was serving with the Royal Irish Fusiliiers.
The family moved back to New Zealand when Neill was just seven, with the youngster sent to a Christchurch boarding school.
He credited the massive move to his rough new surroundings — as a shy seven-year-old with a British accent and a slight stutter — for turning him into an actor.
“I had to learn fast to become a New Zealander,” he told the Australian Financial Review.
“I’m convinced that is the seeds of acting.”
In another step towards his future calling, Neill even assumed a new name — Sam — due to the number of other students at the school named Nigel.
Getting a role on
Neill’s studies at the University of Canterbury led to his first being exposed to acting.
And shortly after graduating with Bachelor of Arts in literature, he snagged a role in New Zealand television film The City of No in 1971.
Actor Sam Neill and actress Judy Davis on set of the Analysis Film movie My Brilliant Career in 1979. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
He worked on several other locally made television films before his breakthrough role in 1977 Kiwi film Sleeping Dogs. The film, in which Neill had the lead role, was a critical success internationally.
He moved to Australia, and in 1979 quickly found more fame in My Brilliant Career, another locally produced film which gained broader success.
After several other Australian films, Neill gained the attention of Hollywood following his stint as Damien Thorn in the occult thriller, Omen III: The Final Conflict.
The film effectively acted as a springboard for more work in the sci-fi/fantasy and horror genres, with Neill going on to star in Viking movie Ivanhoe and horror flick Possession.
He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of an actual spy on the BBC’s spy mini-series, Reilly, Ace of Spies. He also gained international acclaim for another real-life role in 1988 as Michael Chamberlain in Evil Angels, the biopic on the case of Azaria Chamberlain.
Actor Sam Neill and Actress Nicole Kidman on the set of the Warner Bros movie “Dead Calm” circa 1989. Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Neill was understood to be in the running to take over the James Bond franchise following Roger Moore’s exit from the long-running spy role, but it was ultimately awarded to Timothy Dalton.
“I dodged a bullet that was never fired,” he told the AFR about missing out on the 007 films.
“You’d walk into a room and people would say ‘That is the James Bond I never liked’.”
Regardless, Neill’s star continued to rise, with roles in suspense film Dead Calm and Tom Clancy’s cold war submarine thriller, The Hunt for Red October, before he landed the iconic role of Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park in 1993.
In almost a balance of his new blockbuster role, he was cast the same year in period drama The Piano, written and directed by fellow New Zealander Jane Campion, which was also shot in the same country.
His international career appeared to continue on a similarly divergent path with his role in 1994 bio-flick Sirens — which was shot in Australia, Paul W.S. Anderson’s sci-fi horror film Event Horizon in 1997 and then back to Australia for The Dish in 2000 before going back into mega-movie mode for Jurassic Park III in 2001. He reprised the role as Grant again in 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion.
Other roles included two miniseries playing the titular wizard in Merlin (1988) and Merlin’s Apprentice in 2006 while he also assumed the character of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the historical drama The Tudors.
Neill’s other work included Fox TV series Alcatraz, The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box, BBC series Peaky Blinders and Taika Waititi’s New Zealand film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
He also snagged minor roles in Waititi’s major Marvel movies Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder, while other credits include voice acting roles in The Magic Pudding (2000) and in Peter Rabbit (2018).
Neill’s strong work ethic could potentially be linked to a sense of insecurity. In an interview with New Zealand magazine The Denizen he claimed that “most actors I know are riddled with insecurities”.
“This is not surprising given the precarious nature of our work, and most of us live hand to mouth,” he said.
“Every time I finish a job I think ‘Well, that’s it — I will never work again’.
Actor Sam Neill as Dr Alan Grant and Ariana Richards as Lex try to avoid the attentions of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a scene from the film ‘Jurassic Park’, 1993. Credit: Murray Close/Getty Images
“Then to my delight, the phone rings with another opportunity, and I’m never more excited than when I’m off to do another job.”
Neill will appear posthumously in two films due to be released next year — Godzilla x Kong: Supernova as well as The Last Resort.
Neill was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in June 2022, a redesignation of his 2007 appointment as a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services as an actor.
Health issues
At age 75, Neill revealed in his memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? that he was being treated for stage-three blood cancer.
“The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying,” he wrote in the opening chapter. “I may have to speed this up.”
He said he began the memoir while undergoing treatment for angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, first picked up after he suffered swollen glands while on publicity rounds for Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.
After traditional chemotherapy failed to slow the cancer’s progress, he was put on to a new “very expensive” kind of chemo drug, he said.
He said that, as of March, 2023, he was cancer-free but would be forced to take the medication for the rest of his life.
Personal life
Neill is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.
His first child, a son, came from a relationship with Omen III co-star Lisa Harrow.
He then married make-up artist Noriko Watanabe in 1989 and they had a daughter together. He also adopted Watanabe’s daughter from her previous marriage.
Back in his early 20s, Neill also had a son who was put up for adoption. The pair was reunited in 1994.
On the topic of parenthood, Neill told the denizen he had some regrets: “I gave it a pretty good shot when I could. I’m pleased to see my children are themselves better parents than I was.”
Neill and Watanabe separated in 2017 and Neill soon began a relationship with leading Australian journalist Laura Tingle in 2018. It was reported that they subsequently split in early 2021.
NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 06: Actor and wine grower Sam Neill on his Alex Paddocks property, near Alexandra in the Central Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island. (Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images) Credit: Ross Land/Getty Images
In the last few decades, Neill split his time between a home in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills and his farm at Alexandra in New Zealand’s South Island, where he ran a winery called Two Paddocks.
He ran four small organic vineyards in New Zealand’s Central Otago region.
“Home is my farm,” he told the denizen.
“I like everything about it. I hate doing nothing, and there are always a thousand things to do there.
“It’s also a beautiful, peaceful place to be.”
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