housed his menagerie of famously named farm animals.<\/a><\/p>\nHe was frequently spotted in the nearby towns of Clyde, population 1,200, and Alexandra, population 5,860, eating at local cafes and restaurants and attending film screenings at the local cinemas.<\/p>\n
In Alexandra, Neill was a patron of the community-run Central Cinema. Tracy Blackwell, the cinema\u2019s chair, told the Guardian that, to the community, he \u201cwas just Sam\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sam Neill stands with nurse Courtney Lake (left) and the chief executive of Dunstan hospital, Hayley Anderson. Neill was a patron of the rural hospital in Clyde. Photograph: upplied by Dunstan Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t think he was a Hollywood star, living in our little town \u2013 and he loved our towns.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the cinema did \u201cmeet-and-greet\u201d nights with Neill, they would see a dramatic uptick in membership, and when the cinema ran a weekend of Neill\u2019s films, he provided recordings of himself discussing each film to play ahead of the screening.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed every small town should have a cinema, and I think that\u2019s why he was so obliging towards us,\u201d Blackwell says.<\/p>\n
In a statement on social media, the cinema thanked Neill for the \u201claughs, stories and unwavering support\u201d, and said he would be profoundly missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam was so much more than a global screen icon; he was a treasured member of our Central Otago community, a passionate champion for local arts, and a true friend to our cinema,\u201d the cinema said in its post. \u201cHis belief in the magic of community cinema meant the world to our volunteers and moviegoers alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clyde resident Sue Noble-Adams was at a meeting on Monday night when she learned of Neill\u2019s death. \u201cI was in tears \u2026 I just couldn\u2019t get over it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Noble-Adams first met Neill years ago at Dunedin airport. She was deciding how she was going to get her father, who was in a wheelchair at the time, into the men\u2019s toilet, when a familiar-looking stranger intervened.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam came along and said \u2018I\u2019ll take him in, if you like?\u2019,\u201d Noble-Adams says.<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, Noble-Adams bumped into Neill several times in Clyde, where he was very much \u201cpart of the local scene\u201d, she says, adding his death leaves \u201ca huge hole\u201d in the community and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam Neill was an amazing man. He was revered in New Zealand, revered in Clyde. We\u2019ve lost a real icon and a marvellous actor.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also put his money and his time into local charity events, including donating wine to Garbut\u2019s fundraisers for the Central Otago hospice services.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did a lot of nice things behind the scenes \u2026 he was a down-to-earth local that fitted in with no fuss,\u201d Garbut says.<\/p>\n
Hayley Anderson, the chief executive of Dunstan hospital \u2013 a rural hospital in Clyde where Neill received treatment for stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer \u2013 said he was humble, grassroots and connected.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those special words that actually speak to salt-of-the-earth people who just add a lot of value,\u201d Anderson says.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Neill became a patron of the hospital, and supported it through donations, fundraising picnics and advocacy. Anderson says even though Neill was a very private person, he managed to connect with staff during his treatment and later patronage, and that the hospital team \u201cwere really feeling it\u201d after hearing the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has such a presence, a worldwide presence, but was still very, very down-to-earth,\u201d Anderson says.<\/p>\n
Online, locals flooded forums with their own stories \u2013 relaying interactions with Neill, and discussing his generosity and warmth.<\/p>\n
Duo Cafe in Clyde \u2013 which Neill would visit \u2013 said: \u201cWhether he was enjoying a quiet moment to himself, or joking how \u2018everyone ordered extra hot over a certain age\u2019, or enjoying a \u2018bloody good date scone\u2019, Sam always did it with a twinkle in his eye.<\/p>\n
The stars shone \u201ca little dimmer last night with the loss of a great Kiwi legend\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may have been New Zealand\u2019s most famous, internationally beloved, film star, but to the small South Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-801033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}