Rima Te Wiata, a Kiwi actor who appeared with Neill in the 2016 comedy “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” told The New Zealand Herald<\/a> that he was “a very steady, peaceful, grounded man.”<\/p>\n In an interview with the outlet, Te Wiata recounted times when Neill told the press that he wasn’t afraid of death but that he’d be “annoyed” by it.<\/p>\n Neill’s death came after he said he was cancer-free in April, years after he was diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.<\/p>\n SAM NEILL REMEMBERED AS ‘ONE OF THE GREATS’ BY NICOLE KIDMAN, TONI COLLETTE AND MORE AFTER HIS SUDDEN DEATH<\/a><\/p>\n Sam Neill attends the AACTA Awards on Feb. 7, 2025, in Gold Coast, Australia. (Chris Hyde\/Getty Images for AFI)<\/p>\n “It really sucks actually,” Te Wiata said. “I think he would be like: \u2018For goodness sake, I got over my cancer. And now look, now I get pneumonia. What next?'”<\/p>\n Neill’s family announced his death on Monday via an Instagram post<\/a>, saying he died while at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital in Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” they said. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”<\/p>\n Neill, who starred as paleontologist Alan Grant opposite co-stars Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough in 1993\u2019s “Jurassic Park,” has been remembered<\/a> in tributes from around the world.<\/p>\n Dern, 59, called Neill “my beloved lifetime friend,” in a social media post.<\/p>\n From left, actors Richard Attenborough (as John Hammond), Martin Ferrero (as Donald Gennaro), Sam Neill (as Alan Grant), Jeff Goldblum (as Ian Malcolm), and Laura Dern (as Ellie Sattler) in the 1993 film “Jurassic Park.” (Murray Close\/Moviepix\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n STEVEN SPIELBERG ADMITS HE’S BEEN CONVERTED ON UFOS, SAYS HE BELIEVES THE BELIEVERS<\/a><\/p>\n “He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness, and love, always with the driest of wit. He was a true and noble gentleman, wrapped up in my dream leading man,” Dern wrote.<\/p>\n Goldblum posted a slideshow of pictures from the movie alongside the message: “The next great adventure begins. Love, always and forever.”<\/p>\n In a statement to Variety<\/a>, director Steven Spielberg<\/a> said he “adored making all the ‘Jurassic’ movies with him.”<\/p>\n “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our \u2018Jurassic\u2019 family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world,” Spielberg added.<\/p>\n Sam Neill stands out in the rain in a scene from “Jurassic Park.” (Universal\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n JURASSIC PARK STAR SAM NEILL REVEALS HE HAS ‘FEROCIOUS’ STAGE 3 CANCER<\/a><\/p>\n Laura Tingle, a journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation who also dated Neill for several years, revealed that he had been sick for “the last couple of weeks,” in an interview with ABC Radio Sydney<\/a>.<\/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,” Tingle said.<\/p>\n “He\u2019d 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,” she added.<\/p>\n Cillian Murphy attends the “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” premiere at Kino International on March 12, 2026, in Berlin, Germany. (Gerald Matzka\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Over his decades-long career, Neill has had more than 150 acting credits in movies and TV shows<\/a>, including “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Piano,” “Event Horizon” and “Merlin.”<\/p>\n In 2013, Neill took a role on “Peaky Blinders,” an award-winning crime series set in Britain after World War I.<\/p>\n Co-star Cillian Murphy remembered Neill as “one of the kindest, funniest and gentlest people, and one of the finest actors,” in a statement provided to Page Six<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nicole Kidman<\/a> also paid tribute to Neill, whom she met as a young actress on the set of the 1989 Australian thriller “Dead Calm.”<\/p>\n Nicole Kidman poses alongside Sam Neill in “Dead Calm” in 1989. (Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n “We met when I was just 18 and he took me under his wing and we stayed friends for life. He was charming, kind, funny and intelligent,” she said in a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sam-neill-red-carpet.png\")
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