Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill dies at 78

Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in the “Jurassic Park” movies, has died at the age of 78, his family said Monday, July 13. 

The New Zealand actor's death in Sydney was “sudden and unexpected,” according to the statement posted to the actor’s social media page. 

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,” the family said in a statement on social media. 

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

 

Neill had announced he was cancer free in April after five years undergoing treatment for blood cancer. 

The New Zealand actor found international claim for his portrayal of Dr. Alan Grant in “Jurassic Park,” a role he reprised in subsequent movies. 

 

He also played Holly Hunter's husband in "The Piano". 

Neil 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, a list that includes 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." 

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 k!lling a baby in the Australian Outback. 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 achieved his highest level of fame in "Jurassic Park" playing paleontologist Alan Grant.