Actor Sam Neill’s death at 78 was caused by pneumonia, his representative has confirmed.
Philip Grenz, Neill’s manager, told TMZ that the Jurassic Park star died after contracting the illness.
Grenz also said Neill had successfully overcome lymphoma after receiving CAR-T therapy, an advanced form of treatment.
Neill revealed in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He died Monday in Sydney, according to a statement shared on the actor’s social media page.
The statement described his death as “sudden and unexpected” and said he “remained cancer-free” when he died. No cause of death was given at the time. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” his family wrote.
Actor Sam Neill died at 78 from pneumonia, his manager said. He is pictured in Venice, Italy, in 2017
Neill’s manager Philip Grenz confirmed the Jurassic Park actor’s cause of death to TMZ after his death Monday in Sydney. He is pictured in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2025
Grenz said Neill had completed work on four back-to-back projects over the past year, with those titles expected to be released in the coming months.
Following announcement of Neill’s passing, tributes were paid by fellow actors and directors, including Steven Spielberg, who helmed the first Jurassic Park movie.
‘I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world,’ Spielberg said in a statement.
Actor Sharon Lawrence wrote on Instagram: ‘Condolences and appreciation for the immense joy and mastery Sam Neill brought our industry.’
Neill was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s, along with Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong.
His range was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy Sweet Revenge to chopping off Hunter’s finger in The Piano to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror Event Horizon.
He portrayed both saintly and sinner: In Omen III: The Final Conflict, he played Damien the Antichrist, and he also played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in The Tudors.
The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong’s 1979 film My Brilliant Career, which also introduced Judy Davis. He later appeared in Phillip Noyce’s Dead Calm, a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.
Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi’s Plenty and – again for Schepisi – in A Cry in the Dark, a film about the sensationalized aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback.
Neill played paleontologist Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park film franchise
Following announcement of Neill’s passing, tributes were paid by fellow actors and directors. Pictured 2019
He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 miniseries Merlin and another as narrator of 2017’s Wild New Zealand.
Neill also earned three Golden Globe nods – for Merlin, One Against the Wind and Reilly: Ace of Spies.
Richard E. Grant, a longtime friend who co-starred with Neill in 2019’s Palm Beach, described him in a post on Instagram as ‘an officer and a gentleman in the truest sense.’
Grant said Neill had ‘guided and helped me through a very difficult time in my life.’
Perhaps Neill achieved his highest level of fame in Jurassic Park, playing paleontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs.
His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: ‘Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?’
Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn’t return for The Lost World: Jurassic Park II in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and Jurassic World: Dominion in 2022.
‘It’s probably a little late to learn these things,’ he told the New York Daily News in 2001, ‘but I finally feel I’ve worked out how to be an action hero. I’m happier with Grant this time. He’s gnarly and grizzled, but he looks like he knows what he’s doing.’
