Australian singer Kylie Minogue and British actor Richard E Grant have led the tributes to Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill, following his death aged 78.
Best known for his role as tough, no-nonsense paleontologist Dr Alan Grant, Neill was loved by audiences for his starring role in the Jurassic Park film franchise.
Fellow actor Richard E Grant said: “Knew Sam for three decades and finally worked with him on Palm Beach in 2018. An officer and a gentleman in the truest sense. Guided and helped me through a very difficult time in my life. Sail on, kind Sir."
Singer Kylie Minogue paid tribute, posting "vale Sam" under the announcement of his death on Instagram. Fellow New Zealand actor and Lord of the Rings star Karl Urban said: "Sam was truly brilliant. An inspiration for many who followed in his trailblazing footsteps. A beautiful man. A national treasure who gave so much to New Zealand and the to world. God speed Sam."
Joe Cole, Neill's co-star in BBC drama Peaky Blinders, posted on Instagram: "Rest in peace big dog." Author Kathy Lette remembered Neill as "not just a wonderful actor but also the most charming, kind, intelligent and deliciously self-deprecating friend". She added: "His wry, dry humour & mischievous twinkle lit up our lives.”
And Colin Trevorrow, who directed Sam Neill in 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, described the actor on’ X’ as "deeply soulful and beautiful man".
News of Neill’s death had been announced in a statement which read: "It is with immense sadness that the whanau (extended 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 characterised his whole life."
Neill announced in April 2026 that he was cancer-free after treatment, three years after revealing he was battling a "ferocious" and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The statement added: "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. 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."
Born on September 14 1947, in Omagh, Northern Ireland, to an English mother and a New Zealander father, Neill moved to Christchurch in New Zealand in 1954, where he attended the University Of Canterbury, but was uncertain on which career path to follow, at one point considering becoming a lawyer.
During his time at university, Neill starred in a number of plays, and transferred from Canterbury to Victoria University Of Wellington to finish his bachelor of arts degree, with his first screen appearance coming in New Zealand television film, The City Of No (1971). He continued to appear in a number of programmes and TV films in his home country, before going on to work in Australia, where he had a guest role on the TV show, The Sullivans, and was the romantic male lead in My Brilliant Career (1979).
Neill first gained attention for his role in the 1977 thriller Sleeping Dogs, and in 1981, he took on his first major international role as Damien Thorn, son of the devil, in Omen III: The Final Conflict.
Following the departure of Roger Moore as James Bond in 1985, Neill was considered for the role but lost out to Timothy Dalton.
Recalling the auction in 2023, he told BBC News he did not really want the part and explained: “I really didn't want to be the Bond that everyone didn’t like. If you’re a Bond you’re a celebrity forever and I’m not and never have been and never wanted to be a celebrity. I'm not dogged by paparazzi. I can get a coffee in the morning and no-one bothers me and I think that's completely priceless.
"So, my life is my own. I have friends whose lives are not their own. They're immensely famous and they are very wealthy as a result but their lives are completely circumscribed by this and they can't go where they want and they need security and they need entourage and so on and that would be a living nightmare for me, and being Bond I think would be very much a part of that nightmare."
Neill was Golden Globe nominated for his role as real-life spy, Sidney Reilly, in the mini-series Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983), and he went on to have major roles in films such as Dead Calm (1989), The Piano (1990) and The Hunt for Red October (1990), before landing his best known role in Jurassic Park (1993).
In Jurassic Park, Neill's character was invited to the prehistoric theme park by its creator, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), alongside Dr Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and was initially sceptical of the idea, before later discovering that the dinosaurs in the park were breeding.
Neill would go on to reprise the role of Dr Alan in Jurassic Park III in 2001, which saw his character struggling to secure funding for his velociraptor research before a wealthy couple offer their support in return for an aerial tour of Isla Sorna, the setting of the dinosaur park in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997).
He made his last appearance in the film franchise in 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, and has also voiced the character in three video games based on the series.
In a 2024 interview Neill said the original film works well because it can make you feel like you can "almost touch" the dinosaurs.
He told Sirius XM: "When you see a dinosaur it is sometimes computer generated and sometimes it's this real thing that's right in your face."
He added that a lot of the horror also came from the things you don't see. "For me the scariest moment is when we are stuck in the vans, and the goat has been eaten, something terrible is afoot and you can hear something walking around, what is that thing going to be?"
Other recognisable roles for Neill during the 1990s included the live action adaption of The Jungle Book (1994), John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1995) and Bicentennial Man (1999).
In recent years, Neill turned more towards television, appearing in the first series of BBC historical drama The Tudors as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop Of York, and had a role as Chief Inspector Chester Campbell, a sadistic corrupt policeman, in Peaky Blinders.
Film roles in his later years included as Odin in Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love And Thunder (2022), voicing Mr McGregor and Tommy Brock in Peter Rabbit (2018) and the latter character in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021).
Neill's last film appearance came in The Fox (2025) and his last TV appearance came in Netflix series Untamed (2025), while he is expected to make posthumous appearances in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort in 2027.
Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren. His children are Andrew, who was placed for adoption when Neill was in his early 20s but the pair reunited in 1994; Tim, his son with actor Lisa Harrow; Elena, his daughter with makeup artist Noriko Watanabe; and Maiko, Watanabe’s daughter from her first marriage, who Neill adopted.
In his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, Sam had declared "I am a solitary single man now,” but in the previous decades he had enjoyed a number of long term relationships and was close to his family throughout his life and when he died.
In his autobiography, Neill reflected on his most significant relationships, including the 11 years he spent with actress Lisa Harrow after meeting on the set of Omen III.
"The best thing about that relationship was having our son, Tim," he wrote.
The star then went on to marry Japanese-born film makeup artist Noriko in 1989. The pair shared a daughter, Elena, and he adopted his wife's daughter from a previous marriage, Maiko. The couple was married for nearly 30 years before separating.
In his memoir, he wrote, "My ex-wife, film make-up artist Noriko Watanabe, and I were married for almost 30 years. Our daughter, Elena, is a Melbourne-based tattooist." He also mentioned his relationship with ABC journalist Laura Tingle, saying he felt "so grateful" for the "three wonderful years" they were together from 2018 to 2021.
Prior to these relationships, Neill had son Andrew, when he was young. At the time didn't think he was ‘“capable" of fatherhood.
He told The Times in 2014: “No one has all the answers on how to be a good parent. I've got a slightly unusual family; it's more extended than most. My first son, Andrew, was given up for adoption when he was very small. I was quite small, too – in my early twenties. I didn't see him for 25 years and then we went looking for each other.
“These reunions are portrayed as sentimental and grisly, but there is nothing sentimental about it. No one sobs in anyone's arms; it's much more grown-up...
“You're more capable than you think. If I could give my 20-year-old self any piece of advice, it would be that.”
Neill was appointed an Officer Of The Order Of The British Empire (OBE) in 1991 for his services to acting and a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM) in 2006.
After a change to New Zealand's honours system allowed recipients to convert the DCNZM into a knighthood, Neill accepted the equivalent honour with a redesignation ceremony hosted by New Zealand governor-general Dame Cindy Kiro in October 2022.
He became a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2022.
A year later he told ABC News his cancer had changed his perspective on life. He said: "I said I didn't want the title for 10 or 12 years. Then when I thought I was dying a couple of years ago, I thought, 'Oh bugger it, I may as well go out with the title,' so I changed my mind.”
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