Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1947, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, with his family as a child.
He adopted the name Sam at the age of 12 because there were several Nigels at his school.
He began acting while studying at the University of Canterbury and made his film debut in 1971’s The City of No. After a number of television and film roles in New Zealand, he gained wider recognition in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, one of the country’s first films to achieve international distribution.
He later moved to Australia, where he starred in My Brilliant Career (1979), a film that helped establish him as a leading actor.
Neill achieved global fame in 1993 through his performances in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Piano and as palaeontologist Dr Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.
He reprised the role in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and voiced the character in three video games based on the series.
Neill also found success on television, playing the sadistic, corrupt police officer Major Chester Campbell in the first two series of the BBC’s Peaky Blinders.
Over a career spanning more than five decades, he amassed more than 150 screen credits.
His last film appearance came in The Fox (2025) and his last TV appearance came in Netflix series Untamed (2025). He is expected to make posthumous appearances in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort in 2027.
Neill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991 for services to acting. He was later made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 and accepted a knighthood in 2022 after changes to New Zealand’s honours system allowed recipients to adopt titular honours.
In his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, he revealed details of his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
“I’m not afraid of dying,” he told the BBC at the time. “What I don’t want to do is to stop living, because I really enjoy living.”
He added: “I’ve regarded it as an adventure, quite a dark adventure, but an adventure nevertheless.”
Sir Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.