{"id":931514,"date":"2026-07-13T07:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/931514\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:44:15","slug":"sam-neill-dead-jurassic-park-actor-was-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/931514\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Neill Dead; Jurassic Park Actor Was 78"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSam Neill<\/a>, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in the Jurassic Park<\/a> franchise, Peaky Blinders<\/a> and a plethora of independent films has died in Australia, it was announced tonight. The multiple Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominee was 78.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is with immense sadness that the wh\u0101nau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,\u201d a post on the Neill\u2019s social media feed said late Sunday. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe post added: \u201cSam 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\u2019s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKnighted in 2022 as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Nigel John Dermot Neill\u00a0was born in 1947 in Omagh, Northern Ireland. He and his family moved back to his father\u2019s South Pacific homeland in 1954. Once his acting career had really kicked off with Roger Donaldson\u2019s Sleeping Dogs in 1977, and now going by \u201cSam,\u201d Neill moved to Australia in the late in the Me Decade to pursue bigger opportunities. In 1979, such a bigger opportunity arrived when Neill achieved a Cannes perch and international recognition for his performance in the widely successful Gillian Armstrong-directed and Judy Davis-led My Brilliant Career. <\/p>\n

\n\tToday, looking back on Neill\u2019s brilliant and blockbuster strew carrer, Australian PM Anthony Albanese praised Neill for his role \u201cin so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Sam Neill starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts. <\/p>\n

Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance. <\/p>\n

He will be much\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n\tAfter a long battle with blood cancer, the Did I Ever Tell You This? author revealed earlier this year that he was now free of the disease thanks to Australian clinical trials he participated in.<\/p>\n

\n\tNever long off the big or small screen over the last 45 years, Neill took on hero and villain roles in the likes of the Nicole Kidman-costarring Dead Calm (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Jane Campion\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or\u00a0winning The Piano (1993) and as an actor playing Odin in 2022\u2019s Thor: Love and Thunder, not to mention the first two seasons of Peaky Blinders as the ruthless Major Chester Campbell.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeill auditioned to be James Bond in the 1980s, but the gig ultimately went to Timothy Dalton. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, with a role in Legendary\u2019s upcoming Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, it is Neill\u2019s role as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in the Clinton Era Jurassic Park that defines him for most film fans.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom his initial appearance as Grant in Steven Spielberg<\/a>\u2018s 1993 film based on Michael Crichton\u2019s 1990 novel, Neill showed up in 2001\u2019s Jurassic Park III\u00a0and 2022\u2019s Jurassic World Dominion. The actor, along with Jurassic franchise co-star Laura Dern<\/a>, also added his voice to the 2018 video game Jurassic World Evolution\u00a0and 2021\u2019s Jurassic World Evolution 2.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarried twice and the founder of NZs Two Paddocks vineyard, Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in the Jurassic Park franchise, Peaky Blinders…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":931515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,23996,32747,31443,32755,32758,2407,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-931514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-jurassic-park","tag-laura-dern","tag-novid","tag-peaky-blinders","tag-sam-neill","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116911555810247780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}