Sam Neill, the beloved actor best known for his role in Jurassic Park, died on Monday at the age of 78 after contracting pneumonia, according to a close friend and former co-star. The New Zealand Herald's Ryan Bridge reported that Rima Te Wiata, who starred alongside Neill in The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, confirmed the actor had been struck down by the deadly lung condition.
Sudden Death After Cancer Remission
Neill's family announced his death on Monday via a statement posted on his social media accounts. The statement read: "It is with immense sadness that the whanau [family] 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."
Just months earlier, Neill had been declared cancer-free after a battle with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. His former partner, Laura Tingle, told ABC Radio Sydney that the actor's immune system had been compromised by extensive treatments, leaving him vulnerable to infections.
Weakened by Gruelling Cancer Treatments
Tingle explained: "[His] poor old body just sort of got a bit exhausted. He’s been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks, and everybody who loved him has been willing him on from near and far, but I think it was just a bit too much to recover from one more time." She added: "He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy and, thankfully, it finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he had, but that left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system."
Neill's death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from fans and colleagues around the world. The actor, who was born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, enjoyed a career spanning over five decades, with iconic roles in films such as The Piano, The Hunt for the Red October, and the Jurassic Park franchise.
