Sam Neill shared a bittersweet tribute to his socials on Saturday as he mourned the loss of a dear ‘friend’. 

The Jurassic Park star, 77, revealed his ‘beloved duck’, named Magda, had died in her sleep at his vineyard Two Paddocks in New Zealand.

He shared a video of the waterfowl to his Instagram, revealing she passed away while he was out of the country. 

‘SAD DAY. Very upset to hear that in my absence, dear old Magda, my beloved duck, passed away this week,’ he wrote.

‘Bruce [a member of the vineyard’s team] discovered her in the long grass—she had passed away peacefully in her sleep. This was my last visit with her a few weeks ago.’

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Sam Neill, 77, shared a bittersweet tribute to his socials on Saturday as he mourned the loss of a dear ‘friend’

In the clip Sam posted, the actor could be seen smiling as he cradled the black and white duck and spoke about her recent ducklings. 

‘She was a miracle old duck—very late in life she finally hatched some eggs and raised two hell-raiser ducklings,’ Sam continued in the caption.

‘Today, they gather by the dam to bid farewell to their mother, as KEVIN THE KAKA [another duck] flies by, paying tribute to the grand dame! Goodbye Magda, my dear companion.’

It comes after Sam went into remission following a ‘brutal’ battle with cancer.

He disclosed on an episode of the ABC series The Assembly last year that he was receiving chemotherapy following a diagnosis of stage-three blood cancer. 

‘I’m on a different one now, so at least I don’t look like somebody’s bald thumb,’ he joked at the time.

‘That’s what I looked like for quite a while—it was embarrassing, and I lost my beard and everything, and my dignity went with it.’

Sam mentioned he learned about his cancer in 2022 during his first visit back to New Zealand after lockdowns made it nearly impossible to come home and see his family.

The Jurassic Park star revealed his ‘beloved duck’, named Magda, had died in her sleep at his vineyard Two Paddocks in New Zealand

He had been separated from his family for two years and had only been back in his homeland for an hour when a doctor contacted him with the terrible news.

Sam and his son Tim recounted the harrowing time with Australian Story last year. 

‘When he hung the phone up and we sat down, and we had a little bit of a cry together. It was supposed to be a happy day. He didn’t get to stay,’ Tim said.

Sam added: ‘I was in really a fight for my life. And everything was a new world and a rather alarming world.’

The actor had a brief upswing in health following the chemotherapy, but the cancer returned with a vengeance. 

Thankfully, Sam was eventually put on an experimental cancer drug which began to work after.

He has been in remission for two years now, but admitted he is ‘prepared’ for the drug to eventually stop working.

‘I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it,’ he said of the disease.

Sam now has infusions every two weeks and will do so for the rest of his life or until the drug stops working.

The sessions are gruelling, ‘very grim and depressing’, he said.