Sam Neill

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Sam Neill
DCNZM OBE
Sam Neill 2017 (cropped).jpg
Neill in 2017
Born Nigel John Dermot Neill
14 September 1947 (age 73)
Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Nationality
New Zealand
United Kingdom
Ireland
Education Christ's College, Christchurch
Alma mater
University of Canterbury
Victoria University of Wellington (BA)
Occupation
Actorwriterproducerdirectorvineyard proprietor
Years active 1970–present
Spouse(s)
Lisa Harrow

(m. 1980; div. 1989)

Noriko Watanabe

(m. 1989; separated 2017)

Partner(s) Laura Tingle
(2019–present)
Children 4
Website twopaddocks.com
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM OBE (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand
actor, writer, producer, director, and vineyard proprietor.

Born in Omagh, Northern Ireland, Neill moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, with his
family in 1954.[1] He first achieved recognition with his appearance in the 1977
film Sleeping Dogs, which he followed with leading roles in My Brilliant Career
(1979), Omen III: The Final Conflict, Possession (both 1981), A Cry in the Dark
(1988), Dead Calm (1989), The Hunt For Red October (1990), and The Piano (1993). He
came to international prominence as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (1993),[2] a
role that he reprises in Jurassic Park III (2001) and the upcoming Jurassic World:
Dominion (2022).

Outside of film, Neill has appeared in numerous television series, including

Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983), The Simpsons (1994), Merlin (1998), The Tudors (2007),
Crusoe (2008–2010), Happy Town (2010), Alcatraz (2012), Peaky Blinders (2013–2014),
and Rick and Morty (2019). He has presented and narrated several documentaries.

Neill is the recipient of the Longford Lyell Award and the New Zealand Film Award
and also the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor. He has three Golden Globe and
two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.[3] He lives in Alexandra, New Zealand and has
three children and one stepchild.

Contents
1 Early life
1.1 Northern Ireland
1.2 New Zealand
2 Acting career
2.1 New Zealand
2.2 Australia
2.3 International career
3 Personal life
4 Honours and awards
5 Filmography
5.1 Film
5.2 Television
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Early life
Northern Ireland
Neill was born in 1947 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to Priscilla
Beatrice (née Ingham) and Dermot Neill. His father, an army officer, was a third-
generation New Zealander, while his mother was born in England.[4] His great-
grandfather Percy Neill left Belfast, in Ireland, for New Zealand in 1860, settling
in Dunedin. He was the son of a wine merchant importing wine from France.[5][6]

At the time of Neill's birth, his father was stationed in Northern Ireland, serving
with the Royal Irish Fusiliers.[7] His father's family owned Neill and Co. (later
part of the listed hospitality group Wilson Neill).[8][9] Neill holds British and
Irish citizenship through his place of birth, but identifies primarily as a New
Zealander.[10]

New Zealand
In 1954, Neill moved with his family to New Zealand, where he attended the Anglican
boys' boarding school Christ's College, Christchurch. He went on to study English
literature at the University of Canterbury, where he had his first exposure to
acting. He moved to Wellington to continue his tertiary education at Victoria
University, where he graduated with a BA in English literature.

In 2004, on the Australian talk show Enough Rope, interviewer Andrew Denton briefly
touched on the topic of Neill's stuttering. It affected him a lot and as a result
he was "hoping that people wouldn't talk to [him]" so he would not have to answer.
He also stated, "I kind of outgrew it. I can still ... you can still detect me as a
stammerer."[11]

He first took to calling himself "Sam" at school because there were several other
students named Nigel, and because he felt the name Nigel was "a little effete
for ... a New Zealand playground".[11][12][13]

Acting career
New Zealand

Stills from Landfall – A Film About Ourselves (1974)

Neil's first film was a New Zealand television movie The City of No (1971). He
followed it with a short, The Water Cycle (1972) and the TV movie Hunt's Duffer
(1973). Neill wrote and directed a film for the New Zealand National Film Unit,
Telephone Etiquette (1974). He also appeared in Landfall (1976).[citation needed]

Neill's breakthrough performance in New Zealand was the film Sleeping Dogs (1977),
the first local film to be widely screened abroad.

Australia
Neill went to Australia where he had a guest role on the TV show The Sullivans. He
was the romantic male lead in My Brilliant Career (1979), opposite Judy Davis; this
film was a big international success.
He made some Australian films that were less widely seen – The Journalist (1979),
Just Out of Reach (1979) and Attack Force Z (1981), and appeared in television
productions like Young Ramsay and Lucinda Brayford.

International career

Neil at Burghound Asia in Singapore in 2011

In 1981, he won his first big international role, as Damien Thorn, son of the
devil, in Omen III: The Final Conflict;[14] also in that year, he played an
outstanding main role in Andrzej Żuławski's cult film Possession.[14]

He was one of the leading candidates to succeed Roger Moore in the role of James
Bond, but lost out to Timothy Dalton. Among his many Australian roles is playing
Michael Chamberlain in Evil Angels (1988) (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of
Australia and New Zealand),[15] a film about the case of Azaria Chamberlain.

Neill has played heroes and occasionally villains in a succession of film and
television dramas and comedies. In the UK, he won early fame and was Golden Globe
nominated after portraying real-life spy, Sidney Reilly, in the mini-series Reilly,
Ace of Spies (1983). An early American starring role was in 1987's Amerika, playing
a senior KGB officer leading the occupation and division of a defeated United
States. His leading and co-starring roles in films include the thriller Dead Calm
(1989),[14] the two-part historical epic La Révolution française (1989) (as Marquis
de Lafayette), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Death in Brunswick (1990),[14]
Jurassic Park (1993), Sirens (1994), The Jungle Book (1994), John Carpenter's In
the Mouth of Madness (1995), Event Horizon (1997), Bicentennial Man (1999), and the
comedy The Dish (2000).[14]

Neill at the première of Daybreakers during the Toronto International Film

Festival, 2009
Neill has occasionally acted in New Zealand films, including The Piano (1993),
Perfect Strangers (2003), Under the Mountain (2009), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople
(2016). He returned to directing in 1995 with the documentary Cinema of Unease: A
Personal Journey by Sam Neill (1995) which he wrote and directed with Judy Rymer.

In 1993, he co-starred with Anne Archer in Question of Faith, an independent drama

based on a true story about one woman's fight to beat cancer and have a baby. In
2000, he provided the voice of Sam Sawnoff in The Magic Pudding. In 2001, he hosted
and narrated a documentary series for the BBC entitled Space (Hyperspace in the
United States).

He portrayed the eponymous wizard in Merlin (1998), a miniseries based on the

legends of King Arthur. He reprised his role in the sequel, Merlin's Apprentice
(2006).

Neill starred in the historical drama The Tudors, playing Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
"I have to say I really enjoyed making The Tudors", he said,[16] "It was six months
with a character that I found immensely intriguing, with a cast that I liked very
much and with a story I found very compelling. It has elements that are hard to
beat: revenge and betrayal, lust and treason, all the things that make for good
stories."[16]

He acted in the short-lived Fox TV series Alcatraz (2012) as Emerson Hauser. He

played the role of Otto Luger in the fantasy adventure movie The Adventurer: The
Curse of the Midas Box[17] (2014). He had a role in the BBC series Peaky Blinders,
set in post-World War I Birmingham. He played the role of Chief Inspector Chester
Campbell, a sadistic corrupt policeman, who came to clean up the town on
Churchill's orders. In the 2015 BBC TV miniseries And Then There Were None, based
on Agatha Christie's thriller, he played the role of General MacArthur.

In 2016, he starred in the New Zealand-made film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople,
directed by Taika Waititi, as well as the ITV miniseries Tutankhamun. In 2017,
Neill appeared in a scene in Waititi's fantasy sequel Thor: Ragnarok, in which he
portrays an actor playing Odin (as depicted by Anthony Hopkins), alongside Liam
Hemsworth and Matt Damon as actors playing Thor and Loki, respectively.

In 2018, he portrayed Mr. McGregor and also provided the voice of Tommy Brock, in
Peter Rabbit. In 2019, he was cast for the role of Denis Goldberg in Escape from
Pretoria; however, the role was subsequently recast with Ian Hart. In late 2019, he
was announced to renew his character of Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic World: Dominion,
set for release in 2022.

Personal life
From about 1980 to 1989, Neill was in a relationship with actress Lisa Harrow.[18]
They have a son, Tim, born in 1983. Neill subsequently married make-up artist
Noriko Watanabe in 1989 and they have one daughter, Elena (born in 1991). Neill
separated from Watanabe in 2017,[19][20] and as of early 2018 was dating Australian
political journalist Laura Tingle.[21][22][23]

He is stepfather to Maiko Spencer, a daughter from Watanabe's first marriage.[24]

In his early 20s, he fathered a son, Andrew, who was adopted by someone else. In
2014, Neill said the two "went looking for [one another]" and that their reunion
was "much more grown-up" than expected.[25]

Neill at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

Neill lives in Alexandra and owns a winery called Two Paddocks, consisting of a
vineyard at Gibbston and two near Alexandra, all in the Central Otago wine region
of New Zealand's South Island.[26] His avocation is running Two Paddocks. "I'd like
the vineyard to support me but I'm afraid it is the other way round. It is not a
very economic business", said Neill,[16] "It is a ridiculously time- and money-
consuming business. I would not do it if it was not so satisfying and fun, and it
gets me pissed once in a while."[16] He enjoys sharing his exploits on the farm
through social media.[27] He names his farm animals after film-industry colleagues.
[28]

Neill has homes in Wellington, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia. He is a

supporter of the Australian Speak Easy Association and the British Stammering
Association (BSA). He supports the New Zealand Labour Party[29] and the Australian
Labor Party.

Honours and awards

Neill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1991
Queen's Birthday Honours, for services as an actor.[30] In the 2007 New Year
Honours, he was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of
Merit (DCNZM).[31] When knighthoods were returned to the New Zealand royal honours
system in 2009, those with DCNZM or higher honours were given the option of
converting them into knighthoods. Neill chose not to do this, saying the title of
Sir was "just far too grand, by far".[32]

Neill was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Canterbury in

2002.[33] In 2020, he received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Award,
limited to 20 living people.[34]