Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1947, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand with his family as a child.
He adopted the name Sam at the age of 12 because there were several Nigels at school.
He began acting while studying at the University of Canterbury and made his debut in the 1971 film The City of No. After several television and film appearances in New Zealand, he gained wider recognition in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs. The film is one of New Zealand’s first internationally distributed films.
He later moved to Australia and appeared in the film My Brilliant Career (1979), which helped establish him as a leading actor.
Neill achieved international fame through his performance in Jane Campion’s 1993 Oscar-winning The Piano and his role as paleontologist Dr Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.
He reprized the role in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and voiced characters in three video games based on the series.
Neill also found success on television, playing sadistic and corrupt police officer Chester Campbell in the first two series of BBC’s Peaky Blinders.
Over a career spanning more than 50 years, he has amassed more than 150 screen credits.
His last film appearance was in The Fox (2025) and his last TV appearance was in the Netflix series Untamed (2025). He is scheduled to posthumously appear in ‘Godzilla x Kong: Supernova’ and ‘Last Resort’ in 2027.
Neill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991 for his acting services. He later became a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 and was knighted in 2022 after changes to New Zealand’s honors system allowed recipients to adopt nominal honors.
In his 2023 memoir, ‘Have I Ever Told You This?’, he revealed details about his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“I’m not afraid of dying,” he told the BBC at the time. “What I don’t want to do is stop living, because I really enjoy living.”
He added, “I thought of it as an adventure, a pretty dark adventure, but an adventure nonetheless.”
Sir Sam Neill is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.
