Sam Neill‘s manager, Philip Grenz, has confirmed that the actor died of pneumonia following his remission from cancer.
The Jurassic Park star died on Monday, July 13, at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Sydney, Australia, according to a statement shared on his Instagram account. At the time, the family did not disclose a cause of death, ending the note by saying, “More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In a follow-up statement, Grenz revealed, “Sam passed away from pneumonia. Prior to becoming sick, Sam had valiantly fought and beaten lymphoma through a new treatment called CAR-T therapy.”
He further added, “As Sam was an intensely private man who loathed a fuss, his family will honor him with a private family memorial at his farm in New Zealand at a still-undetermined later date.”
Grenz also touched on the late actor’s career and said, “In addition to running his award-winning winery, Two Paddocks, Sam had filmed four projects back-to-back during the past year, all of which will be released within the coming months.”
Grenz said he issued the statement after speaking with Neill’s family and in response to what he described as “inaccurate and outright falsehoods” circulating in media reports about the actor’s death.
The Emmy-nominated actor’s death has drawn tributes from Hollywood figures including Steven Spielberg, Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman and Cillian Murphy.
Fellow New Zealand actor Rima Te Wiata, who starred opposite Neill in the 2016 film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, also told the New Zealand Herald earlier that Neill had contracted pneumonia before he died. “It really sucks, actually,” she said on the outlet’s show Ryan Bridge Today.
She recalled how the actor once joked about what he might say if faced with another illness. “I think he would be like, ‘Oh for goodness sake, I got over my cancer and now look, now I get pneumonia. What next?’” she said, adding, “He’s on his big journey now.”
Laura Tingle, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist who dated Neill for several years, told ABC Radio Sydney that his body had been worn down by prior cancer treatment.
“His poor old body just sort of got a bit exhausted,” Tingle said. “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.” She also noted that Neill had been sick for the two weeks before his death.
Spielberg, who directed him in Jurassic Park, praised his generosity on set: “Sam was exceptionally collaborative. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him… Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Dern, who played Ellie Sattler alongside Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant, called him “my beloved lifetime friend” in a tribute posted to Instagram. “He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit,” she wrote.
Neill first disclosed his cancer diagnosis in 2023, revealing he had stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, after being diagnosed the year before.
Neill reflected on his diagnosis in his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, opening the book with, “The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying,” he wrote. “I may have to speed this up.”
Beyond acting, the Peaky Blinders actor spent years running vineyards in New Zealand’s Central Otago region and was known for speaking out on causes including LGBTQ+ rights, conservation and peace efforts in Gaza.
He is survived by his four children, eight grandchildren and a legacy that spans more than five decades in film and television.