Sam Neill, the actor who made Dr. Alan Grant a household name across three decades of Jurassic Park films, died Monday in Sydney, Australia, the New York Times reports. He was 78.
His family announced the news in a statement posted to Neill's social media feed. "It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia," the statement read. "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."
No cause of death was given in the announcement.
Neill’s death came despite encouraging medical news earlier this year. In April, Neill had undergone CAR T-cell therapy as part of an Australian clinical trial, and subsequent scans had returned clear, according to The Guardian. That treatment followed a 2023 diagnosis of stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a blood cancer, which he'd discussed publicly in his memoir Did I Ever Tell You This?, published in March of that year. An initial round of chemotherapy had put the cancer into remission.
In the memoir, Neill reflected on what the illness had taught him. "I can't pretend that the last year hasn't had its dark moments," he wrote, per the Associated Press. "But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends."
He had also allowed himself a note of characteristic dry humor about his prognosis: "I'm not afraid to die, but it would annoy me. Because I'd really like another decade or two..."
Neill's screen career spanned more than 150 credits and five decades. Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in 1947 in Omagh, Northern Ireland, he moved with his family to New Zealand at age seven, eventually settling in Dunedin. He took the name Sam at 12 after deciding, as he later put it, that "Nigel is an awkward fit in most circumstances."
His career launched with Sleeping Dogs (1977), the first New Zealand film to open in the United States, and widened with Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career (1979). By the late 1980s, he was a fixture in international productions, appearing in Dead Calm alongside Nicole Kidman, The Hunt for Red October, and Jane Campion's The Piano, which took the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
It was Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park in 1993 that made Neill a global figure. The role of paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, opposite Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough, had originally been offered to Harrison Ford. Neill skipped The Lost World but returned for Jurassic Park III in 2001 and again for Jurassic World Dominion in 2022, closing out the franchise alongside original co-stars Dern and Goldblum.
Dern paid tribute to Neill in a statement to Variety. "Sam was my beloved lifetime friend… He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit. He was a true and noble gentleman, wrapped up in my dream leading man,” she said. I will love you forever, Dr. Alan Grant."
Neill’s television credits included the title role in the 1998 miniseries Merlin, which earned him an Emmy nomination, and two seasons as Major Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders. He appeared alongside Annette Bening in the 2024 Peacock series Apples Never Fall. At the time of his death, he had completed work on the upcoming Legendary film Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
He was a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, knighted in 2022, and had previously received an OBE and a DCNZM. Tributes arrived quickly from both nations he called home.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: "Sam Neill starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts. Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance."
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called him "one of the greats," adding, per the Associated Press: "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."
Neill is survived by four children and eight grandchildren. Alongside his film career, he founded the Two Paddocks vineyard in Central Otago, New Zealand, and was beloved online for posting photos of farm animals he had named after friends and collaborators, among them a chicken called Laura Dern, a duck named Kylie Minogue, and a cow going by Helena Bonham Carter.
