Sam Neill Fought Pneumonia Before His Death at 78, Co-Star Says
Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill battled pneumonia before his sudden death at 78, a former co-star said, months after he declared himself cancer-free.
Actor Sam Neill battled pneumonia before his death at age 78, a former co-star said on Tuesday (Jul 14), offering the first public detail about the illness that preceded the Jurassic Park star's passing.
Neill died in Australia on Monday (Jul 13), according to a statement from his family that described the loss as sudden and unexpected. The New Zealander had undergone treatment for lymphoma in recent years but was cancer-free at the time of his death, the family said, without specifying a cause.
Rima Te Wiata, the New Zealand actor who appeared opposite Neill in the comedy Hunt For The Wilderpeople, told the New Zealand Herald that her friend was not afraid of dying but would have been frustrated by it. She said Neill would likely have reacted with disbelief at getting pneumonia after recovering from cancer, and described the situation bluntly as unfair. Te Wiata did not say when Neill had been ill with pneumonia, and the timeline remains unclear.
Neill had written openly about his health. In a 2023 memoir, he disclosed that he was possibly dying from stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Earlier this year, he said he was cancer-free following a genetic therapy that modified his immune system.
Hollywood Tributes
Director Steven Spielberg, who cast Neill as Dr Alan Grant in the 1993 film Jurassic Park, led the tributes. Spielberg said he adored making the Jurassic films with Neill and that the actor, alongside co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, would never be forgotten.
Dern called Neill a true and noble gentleman. Goldblum said Neill's next great adventure was beginning. Cillian Murphy, who worked with Neill on Peaky Blinders, described him as one of the kindest and finest actors he had known. Nicole Kidman, who starred with Neill in the Australian thriller Dead Calm, called him one of the greats.
A Career Across New Zealand, Australia and Hollywood
Neill was born in Northern Ireland in 1947 and moved to New Zealand's South Island as a child. Christened Nigel John Dermot, he adopted the name Sam early on. He began acting in New Zealand films in the early 1970s before taking on larger roles in Australia.
His breakthrough arrived in 1993 with Jurassic Park, which for a time held the record as the highest-grossing film ever made. He was at one point considered as a possible replacement for Roger Moore in the James Bond franchise. Away from acting, Neill ran vineyards in the Central Otago region of New Zealand's South Island.
