New Zealand actor Sam Neill, known for ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘The Piano,’ died in Australia on Monday at 78, his family said in a statement that described the beloved actor's death as "sudden and unexpected".
"Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life," the statement, posted to the actor’s social media page, said.
The New Zealander, who starred as Dr Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster ‘Jurassic Park’, revealed in a 2023 memoir he was "possibly dying" with stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
However, he declared this year that he was cancer-free thanks to a genetic therapy that modified his immune system.
The family statement said that Neill "remained cancer free".
"The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free," it said.
His family said he was being treated at St Vincent's Private Hospital in Sydney at the time.
Neill's acting career began in the 1970s and spanned dozens of roles in TV and film, including ‘Peaky Blinders’, ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and ‘The Piano’.
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.
When he was not acting, Neill also ran vineyards in the picturesque Central Otago region of New Zealand's South Island.
In a social media post, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote: "Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance. He will be much mourned and long remembered. May he rest in peace."
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called Neill “one of the greats”.
“He started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of. 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 – one of our greatest cultural exports," Luxon said in a social media post.
