He added his thanks to those close to the actor “for considering his privacy with the respect he earned and his loved ones need right now during an incredibly difficult time.”
Was Sam Neill cancer-free when he died?
Neill had been diagnosed in 2022 with a rare blood cancer called angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. His family has clarified that he was cancer-free at the time of his death.
Three months before he died, Neill spoke publicly about his recovery in an interview with Australian network 7News.
“I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” he said in April.
Then, with the kind of understatement that made him so watchable, he added: “It’s time I did another movie.”
Rima Te Wiata, who starred with Neill in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, said earlier this week that he had been battling pneumonia before his death.
“It really sucks, actually,” Te Wiata told the New Zealand Herald. “I think he would be like: ‘For goodness sake, I got over my cancer. And now look, now I get pneumonia. What next?’”
“He’s on his big journey now,” she added.
What work did Sam Neill leave behind?
Grenz said Neill had finished four projects “back-to-back” over the past year. Those projects are expected to be released in the coming months.
That tracks with a career that rarely seemed to slow down. Neill built a filmography of more than 150 roles, moving between blockbusters, prestige drama, genre work and sharply observed character parts without making it look especially strenuous. Annoying, for the rest of us.
For many audiences, have never quite let go of him as the face of Jurassic Park, where he played paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 Steven Spielberg film and later returned to the franchise. But his career stretched far beyond dinosaur-related workplace hazards, including roles in Dead Calm, Peaky Blinders and Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
How did his co-stars remember him?
After Neill died, several former co-stars paid tribute to his work and the person he was.
Nicole Kidman, who starred with him in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm, called him “one of the greats” and “a joy to be around.”
“We met when I was just 18, and he took me under his wing and we stayed friends for life,” Kidman said. “He was charming, kind, funny, and intelligent.”
“He will be deeply missed, and my heart goes out to his family,” she added.
Laura Dern, who played Dr. Ellie Sattler opposite Neill in Jurassic Park, described him as a “beloved lifetime friend.”
“He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit,” Dern said.
She also called him a “true and noble gentleman” and closed with a nod to the role that linked them for generations of moviegoers: “I will love you forever, Dr. Alan Grant.”
Cillian Murphy, who worked with Neill on Peaky Blinders, said he “admired and adored” him “in equal measure.”
Neill is survived by four children, including a son he placed for adoption and later reunited with 25 years afterward.
