Sam Neill, 'Jurassic Park' actor, dies at 78

Actor Sam Neill, known for his role as Dr. Alan Grant in the "Jurassic Park" movies as well as for his range — beyond that blockbuster series, he excelled on indie and horror sets as well as the small screen — has died. He was 78. "Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life," his family wrote on Instagram. "The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free." Neill announced in April that after five years of living with cancer he was in remission due to a new cancer therapy. Neill had Stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He used his remission to promote CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically alters one's cells to fight cancer, after he said chemotherapy stopped working. He died Monday in Sydney, Australia. While on his New Zealand farm promoting his memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This?” in 2023, he told the Guardian that he wasn't afraid to die, but doing so would annoy him. "Because I’d really like another decade or two, you know? We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big." He wrote the book as a salve, as a way to get his "mind off things." He'd never heard of his diagnosis before but wrote that he understood "this is some serious s—." Neill, who had said he wasn't comfortable with celebrity glitz and glam, was known as an unassuming local in New Zealand. On Instagram, in between posts promoting his entertainment work as well as his winery, Two Paddocks, he'd share photos of eggs he'd collected from his "chooks," slang for chickens, and muse about other farm animals, many affectionately named after his actor friends, like Helena Bonham Carter the cow. "I've got 99 problems but being unhappy is not one of them," he said in a Denizen magazine video he shared on Instagram last year. Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland on his family's kitchen table as the midwife shooed away pigs, Neill immigrated to New Zealand at the age of 7. He was born Nigel Neill, but told interviewers he started to go by Sam because there were too many Nigels at his school. After college, he took the lead in “Sleeping Dogs” in 1977, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade. He'd go on to play a Soviet submarine officer in “The Hunt for Red October,” Holly Hunter's husband in "The Piano," a begrudging foster parent in "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" and co-star twice with Meryl Streep, in “Plenty” and “A Cry in the Dark,” a film about a dingo killing a baby in the Australian outback. He also worked in TV, acting in "Peaky Blinders," "The Tudors" and "Apples Never Fall." He was nominated for an Emmy for his title role as Merlin in the 1998 NBC miniseries and as narrator of 2017's “Wild New Zealand.” Throughout his career, he appeared in more than 150 productions. For his achievements, he was knighted in New Zealand in 2022 and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1991. When originally offered the title of "sir" in 2009, he declined, describing the honor as "too grand" in the Sydney Morning Herald. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called Neill one of the country's "greatest cultural exports" in a post on X. "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." Neill's highest level of fame came from playing a grumpy yet thoughtful paleontologist summoned to an island of cloned dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" in 1993. He co-starred alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough. Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures at the proposed theme park get loose, but didn’t return for “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” in 1997. He came back for the third sequel in 2001 and “Jurassic World Dominion” in 2022. Steven Spielberg, who directed the first two “Jurassic Park” films and served as an executive producer across the franchise, said he enjoyed making the movies with the collaborative Neill. “It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children,” he said in a statement. While promoting “Dominion,” Neill described Grant to Forbes as “an old comfortable pair of boots” and shared that during filming breaks, back at the hotel, the cast would sing along as Goldblum played piano. People often say to me, ‘I wish Alan Grant would rescue me right now,’” Neill said. Dern, who in the "Jurassic Park" movies played Dr. Ellie Sattler, an accomplished paleobotanist who has a will-they-won't-they relationship with Grant, referenced Neill's character in a statement about her lifetime friend's death: “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. I will love you forever, Dr. Alan Grant.” His wry humor and gentlemanly nature came up often in tributes. “Peaky Blinders” co-star Cillian Murphy called him "one of the kindest, funniest and gentlest people, and one of the finest actors" in a statement. Nicole Kidman, who starred alongside Neill in Australian thriller "Dead Calm" in 1989, told the Sydney Morning Herald he took her under his wing when she was 18 and, as with Dern, they "stayed friends for life." "Sam was one of the greats," she said. Australian comedian Magda Szubanski, for whom Neill named a duck on his farm, shared in an Instagram video that she had spoken to him not too long ago and he was "really happy about life." "He was just a one off. Such a talented, classy, beautiful, wry, warm human being. Really lovely man. I'm just very sad for all who loved him and there are so many of us," said Szubanksi, who is also in remission from cancer. "Dominion" director Colin Trevorrow said Neill was a source of strength in an Instragram tribute, adding "I’ll remember him for his tranquility, his love of wine, and for the calm assuredness he brought to his characters. It’s not every lifetime you get to befriend a legend." Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren. The Associated Press contributed to this report.