Sam Neill, the New Zealand icon best known for playing palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise, has died aged 78.
News of the actor’s death was confirmed by his family in a statement shared on social media on Monday. No cause of death has been disclosed, but Neill had only recently revealed he was cancer-free after being diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer in 2022.
“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.
“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.”
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese shared his condolences on X, writing: “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.
“He will be much mourned and long remembered. May he rest in peace.”
Neill was born in 1947, in Omagh in Northern Ireland, to an English mother and a New Zealander father who was serving in the British army. He was raised in New Zealand from 1954 and went on to build a career spanning more than five decades across film and television. His breakthrough came with the 1977 New Zealand thriller Sleeping Dogs, the country’s first film to receive a theatrical release in the US, in which he played an estranged family man who turns guerrilla against an overnight dictatorship.
His career reached new heights in 1993 when, already in his mid-forties, he landed a now-iconic part as the stoic yet gentle Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s game-changing dinosaur movie Jurassic Park, a character originally offered to Harrison Ford. He later reprised the role opposite Laura Dern’s Dr Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and the pair went on to become one of the best loved duos in cinematic history.
Neill was active right up until his death, with other notable credits across his career including playing everything from romantic leads to memorable villains in Omen III: The Final Conflict, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Jane Campion's Oscar-winning drama The Piano, Possession, Event Horizon, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Tudors, and Peaky Blinders.
Sam Neill starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 13, 2026
Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance.
He will be much…
He will appear posthumously in the movies Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort, both expected to be released in 2027.
Neill was also among the leading contenders to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond in the mid-1980s, and screen-tested for the role of 007 before producers ultimately cast Timothy Dalton in 1986.
In a 2020 interview with The Independent, Neill said he had embraced becoming “the world’s lockdown jester” because “people need a bit of cheering up”.
Confined to his home, he shared ukulele performances, read children's stories, made spoof film trailers and introduced viewers to the rescue animals on his New Zealand farm, which are named after celebrities. There were his pigs Angelica Huston and Imogen Poots, his rooster Michael Fassbender, his cow Helena Bonham Carter, his chicken Laura Dern, and his duck Kylie Minogue, to name a few.
Neill revealed in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with stage-three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, though he later said he was in remission after undergoing treatment. He first disclosed his diagnosis in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, explaining that he had begun writing the book while undergoing treatment.
“I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me,” he told The Guardian in an interview ahead of the release. “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.
“But as for the dying? I couldn’t care less.”
Earlier this year, he shared that CAR T-cell therapy had left him cancer-free following a clinical trial in Australia.
“I was on chemotherapy, pretty miserable business, but it was keeping me alive,” he told 7News. “Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal, obviously.”
However, his condition changed after he discovered CAR T-cell therapy, a treatment that “genetically modifies patients’ blood cells”.
“I’ve had a scan just now, and there is no cancer in my body. This is an extraordinary thing,” Neill shared.
Neill had monthly chemotherapy for the rest of his life, having signed a contract with the drug company that if he was still living after four months, the treatment would be free.
The actor was knighted in 2022 after accepting the title of Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of his services to film.
He was engaged in environmental activism up until his death. This year, he presented a documentary protesting against a controversial goldmine near his New Zealand vineyard, which groups were concerned could be a fast track to environmental destruction and a threat to tourism.
Neill is survived by his four children and grandchildren.
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