‘Sam made us proud to be Kiwi’ - tributes flow in for acting legend Sir Sam Neill who died in Australia

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

New Zealand acting icon Sir Sam Neill was suffering from pneumonia but was cancer free before his sudden death, a co-star says.

The Jurassic Park star, 78, died unexpectedly on Monday, his family shared via social media, after beating cancer.

Neill's friend and Hunt for the Wilderpeople co-star, Rima Te Wiata, appeared on morning news show Ryan Bridge Today and said Neill had recently been sick with pneumonia.

“As he once said … he's not scared of death but he would by annoyed. He would be like, ‘oh for goodness sake, I got over my cancer, and now look - now I get pneumonia’,” Te Wiata said.

A message on the actor’s Instagram page, written on behalf of Neill’s family, stated: “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.

“The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”

The family also expressed “their deepest gratitude” to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their “incredible care”.

In a statement the family said more details would be shared later, “but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss”.

In April, Neill told media he was cancer-free after almost five years of living with stage-three blood cancer.

Neill said after chemotherapy stopped working, he then underwent CAR T-cell therapy, a revolutionary treatment that genetically modifies blood cells and a scan showed he was free of cancer.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on social media that the actor was “one of the greats”.

“He started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of.

“For more than fifty years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today – one of our greatest cultural exports.

“His work will be watched and loved long after all of us. Our thoughts are with his family and friends tonight,” said Luxon. “Rest in Peace.”

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he grew up watching Sam Neill. “He was a giant of the screen who took our stories to the world and yet still felt like one of us.

“Sam loved New Zealand and advocated for its people and places, well beyond his work on film. He had a strong sense of social justice and regularly advocated for the underdog.

“Sam made us proud to be Kiwis and we couldn’t have been prouder of him,” said Hipkins. “My thoughts are with Sam's family and the countless people he inspired.”

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said it was sad news.

“He was a Kiwi icon through his work in both local and Hollywood films that entertained people around the world over decades,” he said.

Neill first revealed that he was being treated for stage-three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?

“I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me,” he told The Guardian at the time of its publication.

Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Northern Ireland in 1947, he moved to Christchurch with his family in 1954.

Famed for his roles in Sleeping Dogs, Jurassic Park, The Piano and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Neill won many awards including the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the New Zealand Film Award, and the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor. He also had three Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor at the 2023 Logies. He was knighted in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film in 2022.

He had four children and eight grandchildren.

He was most recently working on the movie Godzilla x Kong Supernova in Queensland which is to be released in March next year and had been nominated for a Best Lead Actor in a Drama Silver Logie for his role in The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer, which is due to be awarded in August.

Neill's farm, Two Paddocks, is a certified organic vineyard and lifestyle property near Alexandra. Famed for its Pinot Noir, it was also a rural sanctuary for the actor and his uniquely named menagerie of animals including a cow named Helena Bonham Carter and a chicken called Meryl Streep.

Wool NZ general manager Kara Biggs said Neill was a life-long New Zealand wool devotee and as the organisation’s global ambassador gave of his time freely, generously and whole-heartedly to catapult New Zealand wool into the spotlight just by being himself.

“Sam campaigned passionately on the things he believed in. He will be missed.”

Neill was staunchly opposed to an open-cast gold mine proposed near Cromwell, lending his support to local advocacy group Sustainable Tarras.

Artist Sir Grahame Sydney, who knew Neill for nearly 70 years, said he was “a vital and supportive influence on contemporary New Zealand cultural life”.

Sydney and Neill first met as teenagers in Dunedin, when Sydney’s father was a manager at the Neill family’s merchant and importing company, Neill and Co, which later became Wilson Neill.

Sydney says away from the big screen, Neill’s heart remained grounded under the big skies of Central Otago.

“His devotion to his home province, and its distinctive character was unwavering and deeply anchored.

“As a friend he was modest, witty, impeccably well-mannered, and always enjoyable company.

“Generosity and natural dignity distinguished him. A great man and a great mate.”

Former Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi chairperson Garth Gallaway, who presented Sir Sam with his Icon Whakamana Hiranga award, said the actor was not only a genius but “a charming, generous, highly intelligent and invariably mischievous man who never forgot his Otago roots … It is difficult to imagine a world without the wonderful, one and only Sir Sam Neill”.

Neill was also a patron of the Shakespeare Globe Centre of New Zealand.

“Sir Sam’s contribution to the performing arts in New Zealand was immense,” said its chief executive Dawn Sanders. “He showed generations of young New Zealanders that a life on stage and screen was possible from here, and he did it with warmth, wit and a complete lack of pretension.”

Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi co-chairperson Hamish Edgar said Neill didn’t just represent New Zealand on the world stage, “he expanded it”. “He carried our stories, our humour and our sense of place with him wherever he went, and always as a true gentleman. That’s the legacy of an icon.”