Sad and even shocking - I remember when he happily posted that he was cancer-free (and apparently still was when he passed).
Probably like most Americans growing up in the '90s, I never knew him until Jurassic Park. I enjoyed the work he did around Australasia even more, from My Brilliant Career to The Piano, but his social media presence was a welcome surprise in what's often a toxic wasteland, coming off as such a genuinely warm and charismatic personality.
Australia is at a loss over this news. I can’t imagine how the Kiwis are feeling. He certainly broke big globally but I loved that he continued making local productions alongside the big stuff. He wrote, co-directed and presented the NZ episode of the BFI’s centenary of cinema series and his laconic humour mixed with the darkness of much Kiwi film made for an entertaining mix. Worth a watch.
Very sad to hear that news. His grief-stricken role in Event Horizon is really good as well, perhaps too committed for a rather silly B-movie (as is Kathleen Quinlan's), but that really grounds that film and makes it so re-watchable. I would really second bdsweeney's recommendation of the New Zealand-focused BFI Century of Cinema episode, which shows that in comparison to Australian cinema, New Zealand films had a more blackly comic and dark edge with films like Vincent Ward's Vigil, Geoff Murphy's Utu and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures/Braindead.
In terms of his Australian films, the early roles in Sleeping Dogs and Death In Brunswick are excellent, but I also like his role in that gentle comic drama about astronomy, 2000's The Dish.
colinr0380 wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 8:51 am
In terms of his Australian films, the early roles in Sleeping Dogs and Death In Brunswick are excellent, but I also like his role in that gentle comic drama about astronomy, 2000's The Dish.
Sleeping Dogs is New Zealander - at the start of that country's film revival, over half a decade after Australia's started. It was the first NZ film in both 35mm and colour. Before then local feature film production pretty much comprised two directors from the late silent era to the early 1970s.
Among his Australian roles, there's also My Brilliant Career, in which he holds his own against Judy Davis. He's basically the eye candy in this film about a woman, written and directed by women and based on a novel by another woman.
He is doing much the same in his facilitating role in Wim Wenders' Until The End of the World as well, content to aid his object of desire from afar, and pay for her globe-trotting adventures, in a way to get material for his writing career from his observations of her journey.
That hovering on the margins of the action contrasts interestingly against his 'Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man'-esque Painter with a surrounding harem of supermodels, tempting the local vicar in 1994's Sirens! (The same year that he starred in that really good adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Country Life).
And of course he's great in Dead Calm as well, especially in the later section where he gets stranded apart from Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane's characters, and has to try and find a way to sail back into the action. That's one film that needs badly needs a deluxe UHD edition.
Plus, as with Even Horizon, really luxuriating in going over the top in John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness! Ending up watching himself back on the screen of a movie theatre. Possession too, of course!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Mon Jul 13, 2026 10:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
You never really know who actors are, but he was one of those rare ones that exuded dignity and class. He made any film watchable. I'm also a big fan of In the Mouth of Madness, where his scenery chewing as an insurance investigator on a bad assignment perfectly reflects his role as an actor in a b-film, elevating it into this vortex of self-loathing on mass media.
Sam Neill's death is hitting me hard. Had to check which of his films I have, they were My Brilliant Career and Sweet Country from 2017. He was fantastic in Jurassic Park, Possession, Dead Calm, In The Mouth of Madness, Hunt for Red October and Event Horizon, a film I didn't care for at all otherwise. I need to find The Dish, it sounds like fun. Maybe Hunt for the Wilderness People and Omen III.
Definitely seek out Death in Brunswick (1991) & Country Life (1994) two of his best films and performances.
A Sam Neill film I would love to see again (why I sold off by DVD about 8 years ago I've never know) is The Blood of Others (1984) by Claude Chabrol co-starring Jodie Foster & Michael Ontkean. If was made for TV running 175 but was released in some European countries with a running time of 135 minutes which was the version I had on DVD. I would love to see this released on Blu Ray in both versions.
Damn fine actor and one of the iconic NZ/OZ actors of his generation along with Jack Thomspon, Bryan Brown, John Hargreaves, Graeme Blundell, Harold Hopkins, David Gulpilil, Bruno Lawrence, Chris Haywood, Bill Hunter, John Jarratt & Richard Moir.
It's hard to imagine Australian/New Zealand cinema of the 1970s & 1980s without any of them and their equally wonderful leading ladies.
Sam Neill's latest film The Fox opens soon in Australia. He did a Q&A at the Sydney Opera House last month when the film played at the Sydney Film Festival. In the film he provides to voice for a potty-mouthed Magpie. Saw a trailer just last week when I went to see Saccharine and it looks hilarious. Will be somewhat bittersweet watching the film now. He will be so missed.
I feel like I have read a whole page of posts regarding Sam Neill without a single mention of The Piano. I know he's not meant to be the likable type in the film. But I always found he played that particular role quite well.
I happened to catch some of My Brilliant Career on TV the other night. He's so impossibly handsome in that movie, and so perfectly paired with Judy Davis. Despite his leading roles, he had such a career co-starring or supporting with generosity so many brilliant performances by actresses: Davis, Adjani in Possession, Streep in A Cry in the Dark, Kidman in Dead Calm, Holly Hunter in The Piano. Always one of those actors like Trevor Howard or Denholm Elliott that you were happy to see show up in anything.
I just saw Letterboxd reposted a recent-ish video where they asked him about his four favorites and he mentioned Sleeping Dogs as the fourth. So I'm adding that to the list, too. Arrow did a BD, I think?
Finch wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2026 3:44 am
I just saw Letterboxd reposted a recent-ish video where they asked him about his four favorites and he mentioned Sleeping Dogs as the fourth. So I'm adding that to the list, too. Arrow did a BD, I think?
Yes, back in 2018, one of about five NZ films Arrow licensed then. As I say above, Sleeping Dogs is a significant film in the history of NZ cinema.
I like the chemistry he maintains with Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October. He cuts a unique picture of second in command that at one point privately yields to Ramius’ intention to defect in a way that in no way undercuts his own loyalty to the captain.
