The New Zealand actor Sam Neill, best known to audiences for his role as paleontologist Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, died on Monday in Sydney at the age of 78, his family announced.
In a statement posted on the actor’s Instagram profile, the family stated that the death was “sudden and unexpected” and that Neill had passed away surrounded by family, “with the dignity that characterised his whole life”. The cause of death was not specified, Al Jazeera reports.
In 2023, Neill revealed that he was suffering from angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. During his treatment, he published his memoir Did I Ever Tell You This?, and in April he announced that he had beaten the disease. The family stated that he had remained free of cancer symptoms until his death.
Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, he moved to New Zealand with his family as a child. In a career spanning five decades, he starred in more than 50 films. He rose to prominence in Sleeping Dogs (1977), the first feature film from New Zealand in over a decade. He also appeared in The Hunt for Red October, The Omen III, the horror In the Mouth of Madness and the award-winning drama The Piano alongside Holly Hunter. Younger audiences may remember him from the series Peaky Blinders, the cast of which said they were “devastated” by the news. The BBC described him as a versatile actor whose roles extended far beyond Jurassic Park.
The New Zealand prime minister, Christopher Luxon, described him as “one of the greats”, while the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, wrote that the witty, reserved, thoughtful and laconic Neill would be long mourned and remembered. Outside of film, Neill was also known for the vineyards he ran in Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island.
