Appreciation
He did everything from Aussie indies to Hollywood blockbusters. But Neill's turn as the son of Satan with Beltway connections may be the ultimate testament to his talents
Tributes have been pouring in all morning for Sam Neill, the Ireland-born, New Zealand-bred actor whose death at age 78 was announced late on July 13. Most people immediately mentioned his turn as Dr. Alan Grant, the paleontologist hero of the Jurassic Park movies; his reunion with his fellow I.P. O.G.s Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion was the highlight of that late-franchise entry. (It also gave us one hell of a raucous press tour.) Older fans referenced his early days in New Zealand and Australian cinema, notably his role in the landmark film Sleeping Dogs (1977) and his international breakout role in My Brilliant Career (1979). Some shouted out cult classics like Possession (1981), in which Neill provided the ballast that allowed his costar Isabelle Adjani the chance to dive headfirst off the deep end, or the Hitchcock-thriller-on-a-boat Dead Calm (1989). Others highlighted his turn as the title characters in the TV shows Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983) and Merlin (1998).
Neill played dashing heroes, sinister villains (see: The Piano), authority figures, famous figures, and father figures. He was this close to becoming the new James Bond in the Eighties, an opportunity he later admitted he’d been glad to miss out on. Neill seemed perfectly capable of lending his matinee-idol mug to both massive Hollywood blockbusters and modest down-under indies; the tenderness and gravitas he lent to a character like the crusty “uncle” in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Taika Waititi’s sleeper hit from 2016, was invaluable.
