Philip Grenz, Neill’s agent of 19 years, confirmed the actor’s cause of death in a statement released today.<\/p>\n
![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784180969_225_e03500e8969f40d76a84ca4d9af5a633.jpeg\")
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Best known for his role in Jurassic Park, Neill died aged 78 in Sydney surrounded by family. (AFP: Archives du 7eme Art\/Photo12)<\/p>\n
“As Sam Neill’s longtime rep, I spoke with his family and wish to clarify some details for his fans,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“Sam passed away from pneumonia. Prior to becoming sick, Sam had valiantly fought and beaten lymphoma through a new treatment called CAR T therapy.<\/p>\n
“In addition to running his award-winning winery, Two Paddocks, Sam had filmed four projects back-to-back during the past year, all of which will be released within the coming months.<\/p>\n
“As Sam was an intensely private man who loathed a fuss, his family will honour him with a private family memorial at his farm in New Zealand at a still-undetermined later date.”<\/p>\n
Remembering Sam Neill<\/a><\/p>\n Actor Sam Neill might have officially been a Kiwi, but he did some of his best work in Australian film and television. This is his story.<\/p>\n Neill’s death was confirmed in a statement posted online earlier this week. It described his passing as “sudden and unexpected”.<\/p>\n “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,” the statement said.<\/p>\n Neill had experienced some struggles with his health leading up to his death, ABC global affairs editor Laura Tingle, who had a previous relationship with the actor, revealed this week.<\/p>\n “He’s been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks,” she said.<\/p>\n “Everybody who loved him has been willing him on from near and far, but I think it was just a bit too much to recover from one more time.<\/p>\n “He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy and, thankfully, it finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he had, but that left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system.”<\/p>\n Neill rose to fame in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs before going on to star in My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park, The Piano, The Dish and Possession, among other films.<\/p>\n In 2023 he revealed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma<\/a>, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in early 2022.<\/p>\n He entered remission later that year after a rare anti-cancer drug worked, but needed ongoing infusion treatment<\/a>.<\/p>\n In April this year, he announced that he was cancer-free.<\/p>\n The actor was also knighted in 2022, becoming Sir Sam Neill.<\/p>\n Neill’s Jurassic Park co-stars Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern were among many to release flowing tributes to the actor. (Getty: Guy DeLort\/WWD\/Penske Media)<\/p>\n Tributes flowed for Neill this week, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said he had “earned a special place in Australian hearts”.<\/p>\n “Wry and dry, thoughtful and laconic, Sam fought illness with the same dignity, humour and conviction that gave strength to his every performance,” he said in a statement on X.<\/p>\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784180970_817_7c8cccdc71fdaa289742752da3aa5989.jpeg\")
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