13/07/2026 22:32 - Entretenimiento
The world of cinema and fans of the Jurassic Park franchise are in mourning. The renowned actor Sam Neill passed away unexpectedly on July 13, 2026, at the age of 78 in a hospital in Sydney, Australia. According to a statement from his family, his passing was sudden, but they emphasized that the actor was completely free of cancer—a battle he had fought in recent years. His family expressed gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their care.
Far from the glamour and red carpets of Hollywood, Sam Neill had found his true paradise on a farm in Central Otago, located on the South Island of New Zealand. The property, named Two Paddocks, was home not only to sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens but also to four vineyards where the actor produced his own Pinot Noir wine for over 30 years.
The actor, who moved from Northern Ireland to New Zealand at the age of seven, used to say that this land was the place of his dreams. With his unmistakable sense of humor, Neill named his animals after his closest friends in the film industry. The sheep was named Jeff Goldblum, the cow Helena Bonham Carter, the lambs Susan Sarandon and Anjelica Huston, and the chicken Meryl Streep. During the pandemic, he became beloved on social media for sharing videos of himself playing the ukulele, painting, and reading poetry, admitting without shame that he had no talent for these activities but enjoyed helping people smile.
In 2022, while promoting the movie Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill noticed swelling in his glands that prompted him to see a doctor. The diagnosis was tough: advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The actor recounted this experience in his memoirs titled Did I Ever Tell You This.
Initially, the treatment consisted of chemotherapy, a process he described as unpleasant but life-sustaining. However, the chemotherapy stopped working, and his situation became critical. He then underwent an innovative CAR-T therapy, a procedure that genetically modifies the patient's own T cells to identify and fight cancer cells. To everyone's joy, in April 2026, the actor announced that medical tests showed no presence of cancer in his body.
Three years before his passing, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian in 2023, Neill spoke openly about his diagnosis and his perspective on life. The actor confessed that he did not fear death, though it bothered him to leave soon due to the bonds tying him to earthly life.
I am not afraid of dying, but it would annoy me. Because I would like to live another decade or two. We have built all these beautiful terraces, we have these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see them grow. And I have my lovely grandchildren. I want to see them grow up.
With a career spanning over 150 productions, Sam Neill will always be remembered for playing Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park saga. His debut in this franchise was in 1993, the same year The Piano was released—one of his most recognized and awarded acting works. In 2022, he stepped back into the paleontologist's shoes in Jurassic World: Dominion, a reunion he used to record fun improvised jazz sessions with his colleague Jeff Goldblum, which went viral and surpassed a million and a half views.
His stint in television also left a mark, notably his participation in the acclaimed series Peaky Blinders. The Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia paid tribute to the actor, remembering not only his undeniable talent but also his human warmth and deep love for nature.
Alfredo S. Quiroga
