Jurassic Park star Sam Neill’s unexpected death at the age of 78 has led to an outpouring of love and tributes from fans and his former co-stars. Although Neill’s family said he remained cancer-free, little information was initially shared about his health in the weeks before his death.
Now, his ex, journalist Laura Tingle, is speaking out about the actor’s final days.
While appearing on Sydney Mornings on Tuesday, Tingle, who dated Neill from 2018 to 2021, revealed that Neill had an extensive list of health struggles in recent years.
“The bottom line is he’d been fighting various forms of cancer for at least the last five years intensively,” she said. “That takes a toll on anybody’s body. He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy. Thankfully, it had finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he had. But that left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system. I think his poor old body sort of got a bit exhausted.”
Tingle noted that Neill had been “pretty sick for the last couple of weeks.”
“Everybody who loved him has been willing him on from near and far, but I think it was just a bit too much to recover from one more time,” she said.
Neill’s family revealed the news of his death on Monday through a post on Instagram.
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau [family] of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” the statement read. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”
Neill’s family has not disclosed a cause of death. His Hunt for the Wilderpeople co-star Rima Te Wiata told The New Zealand Herald that he had pneumonia, though she did not provide further details.
In addition to his famous role in the Jurassic Park franchise, Neill was also known for the television series Peaky Blinders and the films Possession and Event Horizon.
