Iconic Jurassic Park director has paid tribute to star Sam Neill following .
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Spielberg reacts to Sam Neills shocking death.
Iconic Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg has paid tribute to star Sam Neill following his shock death at 78.Neill, who is best known for his role as Dr Al...
Neill, who is best known for his role as Dr Alan Grant in the dinosaur franchise, passed just months after he revealed he was 'cancer-free' following a long battle with the disease.
The actor died in hospital in Sydney on Monday.
Family described his death as 'sudden and unexpected' in a statement published on his Instagram page. The actor was previously diagnosed with a type of blood cancer.
Spielberg said he was 'saddened' by the news of Neill’s death, telling The Daily Mail in a statement, 'I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park.
'Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children.
'I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.'
Iconic Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg has paid tribute to star Sam Neill following his shock death at 78 - Neill pictured with Laura Dern in the 1993 film
Spielberg said he was 'saddened' by the news of Neill’s death, telling Variety in a statement, 'I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill' - pictured with the stars on set in 1993
Neill's family said in a tribute: 'It is with immense sadness that the whānau (family) of share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,' they said.
Spielberg said, 'I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family' - pictured 1993 with Neill, Goldblum, Princess Diana, Ariana Richards,Kate Capshaw and Richard Attenborough
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In April, Neill - who is best known for playing Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise - announced tests had found he was cancer free
'Then the chemo stopped working. I was at a loss and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn't ideal obviously.'
Neill underwent a special treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically modifies a patient's own T-cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells. Private treatment costs around $AUD540,000.
'I've just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that's an extraordinary thing. I'm very, very excited that this can happen,' he said at the time.
The treatment is currently in clinical trials to treat another blood cancer, myeloma.
Neill also said he was planning to make a return to acting.
'It's time I did another movie,' he said.
Neill first went public with his cancer diagnosis in 2023 after being diagnosed with cancer the previous year, after initially experiencing swollen glands.
He found out about his stage-three blood cancer while he promoted Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.
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In that film he reprised his role as Grant alongside original co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
He told Australian Story at the time: 'I'm not in any way frightened of dying. That doesn't worry me. It's never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.
'I'd be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I'm not afraid of it.'
Neill, who was born in Northern Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealander father, first disclosed the news of his illness in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This, where he writes in the first chapter that he is 'possibly dying'.
Reflecting on life at the time, the seasoned actor once again said that he did not fear death, admitting, 'I'm not afraid to die. But it would annoy me. Because I'd really like another decade or two, you know?'
'We've built all these lovely terraces, we've got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I've got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big.
'But as for the dying? I couldn't care less.'
Neill shares a son, Tim, 40, with New Zealand actress, Lisa Harrow, to whom he was married between 1980 and 1989.
The star was married to Japanese makeup artist Noriko Watanabe from 1989-2017 and they share a daughter, Elena, 35. He also adopted Noriko's daughter from her first marriage, Maiko.
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Neill first went public with his cancer diagnosis in 2023 after being diagnosed with cancer the previous year, after initially experiencing swollen glands (pictured in 2025)
Neill was born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Ireland, with his family moving to New Zealand in 1954.
He went by the nickname Sam, dropping Nigel after deciding Sam was 'less awkward'.
'I found I moved more easily in the world as a Sam. Nigel is an awkward fit in most circumstances. Imagine being a movie actor called Nigel Neill,' he said in 2014.
Neill starred in three Jurassic Park films including the original in 1993, Jurassic Park III in 2001, and Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.
He became a household name after playing palaeontologist Grant in 1993's Jurassic Park alongside Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum.
He would reprise the role in Jurassic Park III in 2001, and again in Jurassic World Dominion just four years ago.
He has recently worked on Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort, both of which are now set to be released posthumously in 2027.
On the small screen, Neill appeared in episodes of The Simpsons, Peaky Blinders, The Tudors and The Twelve.
