THE GENT (REMEMBERING SAM NEILL)

Some actors exude a sense of decency, even when they are playing deeply flawed people.

Sam Neill was that kind of actor.

Born into a British military family in Omagh in the west of Northern Ireland in 1947, he was very much seen as an Antipodean acting great - having moved to New Zealand with his family moved when he was seven.

With roots on his father's side in Northern Ireland and an English mother, there was a definite Anglo Irish sensibility to him that audiences really responded to.

Neill was wonderfully self-deprecating, modest, generous and supportive of other actors and performers.

He was also, as many people have observed following his passing, a versatile and daring screen actor who was as comfortable in indie movies as he was in big budget TV dramas or major Hollywood blockbusters.

Originally christened Nigel John Dermot Neill, his father Dermot was a New Zealander who served in the Royal Irish Fusiliers - a career which brought the family to Omagh.

His mother Priscilla Beatrice Ingram was of English descent.

On his father's side, Neill had connections to the wine business going back to his great great grandfather who imported it from France into Ireland before leaving Belfast for New Zealand.

It was a trade Sam would himself dabble in successfully later in life, with his popular Two Paddocks Pinot Noir.

Proud of his Irish roots he told the Belfast-based newspaper, the Sunday Life in 2014: "For my family, this was where some of our happiest times were.

"After my parents left to go back to New Zealand, they were always a little bit wistful about Northern Ireland."

Visiting Northern Ireland, even backpacking there at the height of the Troubles, Neill told the newspaper: "I've been back to Omagh where I was born but I don't remember it well.. I was a little bit small to remember the town but it has been very nice to retrace my steps. 

"It's nice to see Omagh back in one piece and looking good. It's a place brimming with optimism and confidence."

Initially attending school in Ireland's Ecclesiastical capital of Armagh, Sam and his family moved to Christchurch in New Zealand when he was seven.

He initially attended the Medbury School, a private preparatory school.

A year later, when the family moved to Dunedin, he soon dropped his name Nigel and adopted the name Sam because there were too many of his contemporaries in school called Nigel.

Boarding in the Anglican run Christ's College in Christchurch in his teenage years, he secured a place at the University of Canterbury where he struggled both as a law student and to also identify a career path.

Sam was certain he did not want to join the military like his father.

However he developed a taste for acting when he landed roles in several university productions of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' 'Macbeth' and 'Marat/Sade'despite having a slight stammer which he overcame.

After transferring to the University of Wellington, he settled on becoming an actor and joined the Downstage troupe where he earned $25 a month and ate leftover food from meals the audience consumed during performances.

In 1971, Neill landed his first onscreen role in a TV movie 'The City of No' and over the next three years, he built a career onstage and screen that enabled him to write and direct his own film 'Phone'.

The film starred John Banas as a polite, eccentric man who rings a company to pitch his telepathic machine but is treated very poorly by those on the other end of his calls. 

In 1977, Neill made a movie that many believe is one of the greatest New Zealand films of all time, 'Sleeping Dogs'.

Directed by Australian Roger Donaldson, Sam portrayed a man living in a fascist state, coping with the destruction of his marriage in a taut thriller whose cast included Hollywood character actor Warren Oates, Nevan Rowe and Ian Mune.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times and Janet Maslin of the New York Times were particularly effusive about the movie, with the latter singling Sam's lead performance out for praise.

Like many Kiwi performers, Neill looked to also make his mark in Australia and landed a regular part in the popular soap opera 'The Sullivans' as a man who woos Susan Hannaford's sensitive and shy Kitty Sullivan, only for her to discover he is already married.

There was an ill-judged supporting role in Michael Thornhill's 1979 critically lambasted Australian sex comedy 'The Journalist' with Jack Thompson.

But he quickly redeemed himself with a performance that brought him to the attention of international movie audiences as Judy Davis' well heeled, love interest in Gillian Armstrong's acclaimed period drama 'My Brilliant Career'.

In 1981 Sam had a high profile role in the third instalment of 'The Omen' franchise, playing the grown up version of Damien Thorn in Graham Baker's 'The Final Conflict' with Rosanno Brazzi and Lisa Harrow which performed decently at the box office despite disappointing reviews.

There was a prominent role in Krzysztof Zanussi's 'From A Far Country,' a drama inspired by the life in Poland of the then Pope John Paul II with Cezary Morawski, Lisa Harrow, Christopher Cazenove and Warren Clarke.

Another 1981 film, Andrzej Zulawski's ambitious psychological horror 'Possession' about the disintegrating marriage of an international spy and his wife, played by Isabelle Adjani, received lukewarm reviews but would later undergo a critical reappraisal and achieve cult status.

Neill built his profile internationally in the 1980s with a number of eye catching roles on the small screen.

In 1982, he played Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert in a star studded CBS and ITV version of 'Ivanhoe' with Anthony Andrews in the title role, James Mason, Michael Horden, Lysette Anthony, Olivia Hussey, Julian Glover, Ronald Pickup and John Rhys-Davies.

He starred in the well received 1983 ITV adventure series 'Reilly: Ace of Spies' which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV movie and the popular CBS miseries of Jeffrey Archer's novel 'Kane and Abel'  opposite Peter Strauss in which he played the former.

In 1984, Sam played The Gentleman in Desmond Davis' well received Channel 4 TV movie of Irish author Edna O'Brien's 'The Country Girls' with Maeve Germaine, Jill Doyle, Anna Manahan, John Kavanagh and Niall Tobin.

There was a major role opposite 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty' stars Patrick Duffy and Pamela Sue Martin in a syndicated 1986 US TV movie of Arthur Hailey's pharmaceutical industry melodrama 'Strong Medicine' with Ben Cross, Annette O'Toole and Dick Van Dyke and he played the KGB administrator of a Soviet run USA in the 1987 ABC ratings smash 'Amerika' with Kris Kristoffersen, Mariel Hemingway, Cindy Pickett, Lara Flynn Boyle, Robert Urich and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

In the same decade, he played a KGB agent pursuing Martin Sheen and Brigitte Fossey's CIA operatives in Jeannot Szwarc's 1982 Cold War thriller 'Enigma' with Derek Jacobi, Frank Finlay and Warren Clarke which struggled to make an impression at the box office after tepid reviews.

In 1982 he also joined another rising Antipodean star Mel Gibson in Tim Burstall's war film 'Attack Force Z' which was only released in Australia and which his co-star would later admit was so poor, it's funny.

The great French director Claude Chabrol directed Sam, Jodie Foster and Michael Ontkean in a critically mauled 1984 HBO movie of Simone de Beauvoir's 1948 novel 'The Blood of Others' which was adapted for the screen by the Belfast novelist Brian Moore.

Chabrol's film was edited down for a theatrical release dubbed for French audiences.

Australian director Fred Schepisi cast him as one of Meryl Streep's loves in the 1985 David Hare scripted wartime drama 'Plenty' with Charles Dance, Ian McKellen, Tracey Ullman, John Gielgud and Sting which received mixed reviews.

Schepisi would work with Streep and Neill again in 'A Cry In The Dark' (known as 'Evil Angels' in his native Australia) which focused on the media circus around the infamous dingo trial of Richard and Lindy Chamberlain over the disappearance of their young daughter.

Both leads got glowing reviews, with Streep landing a Best Actress Oscar nomination and Neill picking up an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor for his work and also an ACTAA.

However the film didn't live up to box office expectations.

Sam would enjoy further critical acclaim for his performance in the Australian director Philip Noyce's survival thriller 'Dead Calm' in which he played a husband to Nicole Kidman's much younger wife.

Audiences lapped up Noyce's taut thriller which saw Neill and Kidman's characters terrorised on board their yacht by Billy Zane's drifter.

The winner of four Australian Film Institute awards, it brought Kidman, Zane and Noyce to the attention of Hollywood movie producers and international audiences and further enhanced Neill's reputation.

The 1990s were a decade when he became a recognisable Hollywood actor, with him making his mark in a number of high profile movies.

The decade began with Sam taking on a high profile time as Sean Connery's loyal right hand man on a Soviet submarine in John McTiernan's box office smash 'The Hunt For Red October" which starred Alec Baldwin as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan in his first screen incarnation, James Earl Jones, Joss Ackland, Scott Glenn, Stellan Skarsgard, Peter Firth, Tim Curry, Jeffrey Jones and Courtney B Vance.

Neill played a chef sucked into the orbit of criminals in Melbourne in John Ruane's acclaimed black comedy 'Death in Brunswick' with Zoe Carrides which was the second highest grossing Australian movie of 1990.

The following year the German director Wim Wenders directed him, William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Max Von Sydow, Jeanne Moreau and Ernie Dingo in the 1991 sci fi epic 'Until The End of the World' which bombed at the box office despite boasting a cool soundtrack featuring U2, REM, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Depeche Mode and Neneh Cherry. 

In 1992 Sam played the chief villain, a shady CIA operative in John Carpenter's 'Memoirs of an Invisible Man' with Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, Michael McKean, Stephen Toblowsky and Jim Norton - a production troubled by personality clashes between the director, Chase and Hannah.

Critics hated the movie which tanked at the box office, although Carpenter praised Neill's contribution and subsequently forged a close friendship with him.

1993 would be a vintage year for Neill, with him take on the role of leading man in one of the year's biggest summer blockbusters and also impressing audiences in a major awards season contender.

Steven Spielberg cast him as the paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in 'Jurassic Park' which used cutting edge visual effects to recreate genetically developed dinosaurs.

Starring alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Wayne Knight and Samuel L Jackson, the movie raced to over $1 billion in box office takings and spawned a franchise.

Originally earmarked for Harrison Ford and turned down by William Hurt, Spielberg settled on Neill for the part of the gruff paleontologist because he wanted a solid actor who wasn't going to be outrageously expensive. 

Hid casting decision paid off, with Neill recalling how in the film's iconic scene where his character finally sees dinosaurs in the flesh for the first time the director asked him, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum to imagine how they would react on seeing the creatures for the first time. 

"I said: 'Oh sh*t, I don't know, Steven. I think I'd faint.' That's why my knees go in the shot," he explained.

Neill would reprise his most beloved screen role on two more occasions as the lead in Joe Johnston's 2001 sequel 'Jurassic Park 3' with Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola and William H Macy which failed to match the original in terms of critical acclaim but was still a hit nevertheless.

Dr Grant was resurrected in Colin Treverrow's later incarnation of the franchise, 'Jurassic World: Dominion' in 2022 with Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum also on board.

But while Treverrow's film matched the $1 billion box office of the original, it nevertheless took a huge critical hammering.

He played a cruel, uptight husband in Jane Campion's quirky and stunning New Zealand period drama 'The Piano' with Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin and Harvey Keitel.

An arthouse hit across the world, it earned Hunter and Paquin Best Actress and Supporting Actress Academy Awards, Campion a screenwriting award and Neill a Best Supporting Actor ACTAA nomination for his performance.

Sam scored a modest arthouse hit the following year in John Duigan's 'Sirens' in which he played the artist Norman Lindsay who Hugh Grant's Anglican priest is sent to see to complain about a blasphemous painting.

The British Australian co-production, film which also starred Tara Fitzgerald, Elle Macpherson, Portia de Rossi and Kate Fischer, was received favourably by most critics.

As well as appearing in Michael Blakemore's 'Country Life' which was an Australian version of 'Uncle Vanya' with Greta Scaachi, Neill narrated and played the part of a British General in Stephen Sommers' well received live action telling of 'The Jungle Book' with Jason Scott Lee, Lena Healey, John Cleese and Cary Elwes which performed respectably at the box office.

John Carpenter teamed up with him again for the 1994 supernatural horror tale 'In the Mouth of Madness' with Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow and Charlton Heston which just about made its budget back after underwhelming reviews.

There was another period drama role as the British Monarch, King Charles II in Michael Hoffman's handsome but disappointing big screen version of Rose Tremain's 'Restoration' in 1995 with Robert Downey Jr, Meg Ryan, Polly Walker, Ian McKellen and Hugh Grant.

With cinema celebrating 100 years as an artform, he was asked by the British Film Institute to narrate Neill and Judy Rymer's mediation on New Zealand's film industry 'Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey By Sam Neill' which featured classics like 'The Te Kooti Trail,' 'Runaway,' 'The Soldier Boys,' 'Goodbye Pork Pie,' 'An Angel At My Table,' 'Heavenly Creatures' and 'Once Were Warriors' as well two films he had starred in, 'Sleeping Dogs' and 'The Piano'.

There were good reviews for a Peter Duncan directed 1996 Australian comedy 'Children of the Revolution' with Richard Roxburgh, Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, Rachel Griffiths and F Murray Abraham as Josef Stalin and Mark Peploe's suspense tale 'Victory' with Willem Dafoe, Irene Jacob, Rufus Sewell, Bill Paterson and Simon Callow, which was based on a Joseph Conrad story.

Sam played a spaceship designer in Paul Anderson's 1997 sci-fi tale 'Event Horizon' with Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan and Joely Richardson which after a troubled production stumbled at the box office but which later developed a cult audience on DVD.

Neill played a husband whose wife, played Kristin Scott Thomas, is attracted to Robert Redford's 'The Horse Whisperer'.

Directed by Redford and also featuring a young Scarlet Johansson, Chris Cooper and Diane Wiest, the film was a success with audiences and received favourable reviews.

He starred opposite Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz and Oliver Platt as a businessman in Chris Columbus' saccharine 1999 sci-fi tale 'Bicentennial Man' which fell well short of critical and commercial expectations.

On the small screen, Neill continued to do quality work during the 1990s.

He picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV movie for his performance in Larry Elikan's well received 1991 Hallmark Hall of Fame biopic 'One Against The Wind' in which he played a Major opposite Judy Davis' British nurse Mary Lindell who help spirit away Allied airmen shot down by the Nazis in occupied France during World War II.

Philip Saville directed him, Anjelica Huston, Kyra Sedgwick and Dermot Mulroney in ABC's acclaimed 1993 TV movie 'Family Pictures' on the stresses and strains that having an autistic child could place on a marriage.

That same year he appeared in another ABC TV movie in the Michael Tuchner directed 'Rainbow Warrior' with Jon Voight, Lucy Lawless and Kerry Fox about the controversial sinking of the Greenpeace ship by French operatives off the coast of Auckland.

There was a guest appearance as the voice of Molloy, a charming burglar in a 1994 episode of 'The Simpsons'.

In New Zealand, Sam appeared on TV ONE in 1995 as himself in Peter Jackson and Costa Botes' well received mockumentary about a forgotten filmmaker called 'Forgotten Silver' which starred Thomas Robins and Beatrice Ashton and featured cameos from well known movie industry figures like Jackson, the film critic Leonard Matlin and Harvey Weinstein.

In 1996, Sam was cast as the US Special Agent Alvin Dewey in the Jonathan Kaplan directed, Primetime Emmy nominated, two part CBS miniseries of Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' with Anthony Edwards, Eric Roberts and Gwen Verdon.

Landing the title role of 'Merlin' in NBC's two part 1998 adaptation of the Arthurian legend, Sam found himself acting opposite Helena Bonham Carter as Morgan la Fay, Miranda Richardson as the Lady of the Lake, Rutger Hauer as King Vortigem, John Geilgud as King Constant and Martin Short as Frik in a show that was a big ratings success.

It earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie and a third Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV movie.

In 2006, he and Miranda Richardson would reprise their roles in the David Wu directed, two part miniseries 'Merlin's Apprentice' for the Hallmark Channel which didn't quite make the same impression.

Long before the BBC aired the mockumentary sitcom 'Twenty Twenty' ahead of the London Olympics, Neill joined a host of guest stars in John Clarke and Ross Stevenson's ABC mockumentary comedy series 'The Games' which ran between 1998 and 2000 ahead of the Sydney Games and boasted cameos from John Farnham, The Seekers and others.

The 21st Century got off to a strong start with Neill landing a Best Supporting Actor nomination in the 2000 Australian Film Institute awards for his role as a poetry tutor and love interest for Sinead Cusack's widow in Frank Lamprell's Aussie movie 'My Mother Frank' which also starred Matthew Newton, Celia Ireland and Rose Byrne.

Neill scored a comedy hit with Rob Stich's tale 'The Dish' that year about a rural Australian community's role in the NASA moon landing.

Playing the boss of a giant satellite dish used to transmit images of Neil Armstrong's moon walk, the film broke comedy records in Australia and received warm reviews around the world.

He lent his voice to an animated version of the Australian classic children's tale 'The Magic Pudding' with Geoffrey Rush, John Cleese, Hugo Weaving, Toni Colette and Jack Thompson but the film failed to impress audiences or critics.

In 2002, he joined his friend Bryan Brown, John Goodman, Toni Colette and Sam Worthington for David Caesar's Aussie mobster movie 'Dirty Deeds' in a film which didn't really manage to raise its profile outside Australia.

There was a New Zealand Screen Awards Best Lead Actor nomination in 2005 for Gaylene Preston's intense drama 'Perfect Strangers' in which he played a man who takes a woman to an island in an attempt to force a relationship between them.

Quirky English indie director Sally Potter directed him, Joan Allen, Gary Lewis, Simon Abkarian, Samantha Bond and Sheila Hancock in 'Yes' - a film shot entirely in iambic pentameter in which he played an unfaithful husband.

Critics were divided, however, about the merits of the 2004 movie which struggled to find an audience.

Sam was cast as the overprotective father of Kirsten Dundst's tennis star in Richard Loncraine's light hearted but pretty predictable romcom 'Wimbledon' which starred Paul Bettany, James McAvoy, Bernard Hill, Celia Imrie, Robert Lindsay and Jon Favreau but which was a hit with audiences in the UK and around the world.

In 2005, he joined Jeremy Irons, Zafer Ergin and Demetri Goritsas as the narrators of Turkish director Tolga Olmek's critically lauded 'Gallipoli' about the infamous First World War battle.

Olmek's film drew its narrative from the diaries, letters and photographs of Turkish, British and ANZAC soldiers.

There was further acclaim for another Australian crime movie he co-starred in with Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving which did not get much international attention.

In Rowan Woods' 'Little Fish,' his character was a retiring drug kingpin who was having a gay affair with Weaving's closeted, smack addict.

In 2006, Sam joined Susan Sarandon and Emily Blunt in the Ann Turner directed Australian home invasion mystery 'Irresistible' as a husband whose marriage is tested by a co-worker.

The French director Francois Ozon cast him as a wealthy publisher in the 2007 period drama and social satire 'Angel' with Romola Garai, Charlotte Rampling and Michael Fassbinder which divided audiences and critics. 

Sam's performance in the title role of Toa Fraser's whimsical 2008 period drama comedy 'Dean Spanley' alongside Peter O'Toole, Jeremy Northam, Art Malik, Bryan Brown and Judy Parfitt earned him a Best Lead Actor in a Feature Film nomination at the New Zealand Film and TV Awards.

That year, he was also nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role as a benevolent alien in Jonathan King's teen fiction adventure 'Under The Mountain' which featured Sophie McBride, Oliver Driver and Tom Cameron in its cast but which struggled to find an audience outside New Zealand 

There was a racism drama, Anthony Fagan's 'Skin' with Sophie Okenodo and Alice Krige which was about the true story of a South African woman born to white parents but classified as "coloured" during the apartheid era.

The winner of several film festival awards, the movie, which saw Sam play Abraham Laing, the father of Sandra, received enthusiastic reviews.

Sam was cast as a ruthless businessman in Michael and David Spiereg's ambitious 2009 dystopian sci-fi vampire film 'Daybreakers' with Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Claudia Karvan which did reasonably well at the box office and mostly received good reviews.

On TV, Neill played US Founding Father Thomas Jefferson in a Charles Haid directed 2000 CBS miniseries 'Sally Jennings: An American Scandal' opposite Carmen Ejogo about the slave he had an intimate relationship with.

Along with Julia McGregor and Steve Rogers, he lent his voice in 2001 as the narrator to 'Leunig Animated' - a television series of 50 one minute cartoons by the Australian animator Michael Leunig and narrated the BBC six part documentary 'Space'.

That year he co-starred alongside Shea Whigham, Hugh O'Connor and Emily Proctor in the James Keach directed NBC TV movie 'Submerged' about the sinking and rescue of the USS Squalus submarine off the coast of New Hampshire in 1939.

He portrayed the lawyer Victor Komarovsky in ITV's lavish 2002 three part miniseries version of 'Doctor Zhivago' with Keira Knightley, Hans Matheson, Hugh Bonneville, Bill Paterson, Ann-Marie Duff, Celia Imrie and Kris Marshall.

Scripted by Andrew Davies, it landed a BAFTA nomination despite critics giving it unenthusiastic reviews that compared it unfavourably to David Lean's 1965 epic, Oscar winning movie adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel.

Sam picked up a Logie Award in Australia for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series and an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actor for his work in Network Ten's 2004 Australian Outback miniseries 'Jessica' opposite Leeanna Walsman and Lisa Harrow about a woman who is unjustly institutionalised.

Neill starred alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, Jared Harris, Jamie Sives, Joanna Page, Cheryl Campbell and Charles Dance as a key character, Mr Prettiman in 'To The Ends of the Earth,' a hugely acclaimed 2005 BBC2 adaptation of William Golding's trilogy of novels about a 19th Century British Man of War ship that transported people to Australia.

There was an eye catching role in the US that year as a shipping tycoon keen to get to the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle mystery in the Sci-Fi Channel's three episode miniseries 'The Triangle' with Eric Stoltz, Lou Diamond Phillips, Catherine Bell. Bruce Davison and Charles Martin Smith.

2007 would see him return to Ireland to play the part of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the first series of the BBC2, CBC and Showtime's popular historical drama 'The Tudors' with Jonathan Rhys Myers portraying Henry VIII, Maria Doyle Kennedy as Katherine of Aragon, Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, Henry Cavill as Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, James Frain as Thomas Cromwell, the Earl of Essex, Jeremy Northam as Sir Thomas More and Ian McElhinney as Pope Clement VII.

There was a subtly villainous role as Jeremiah Blackthorn in the 13 part NBC 2008 and 2009 miniseries 'Robinson Crusoe' with Philip Winchester in the lead, Tongayi Chirisa, Joaquim de Almeida and Mia Maestro that drew respectable ratings.

David Wu directed him, Peter O'Toole, Sun Li and Luke McFarlane in the 2009 Canadian and Chinese miniseries 'Iron Road' about the role of Chinese workers in constructing Canada's railways.

In 2010, Neill was honoured for his career in cinema at the New Zealand Film Awards, receiving the Best New Zealand Export award.

That year, he starred alongside Sarah Gadon, Geoff Stults, Laura German and Robert Ray Wisdom in the ABC mystery series 'Happy Town' about disappearances in a Minnesotan community which was axed after six episodes due to poor ratings.

The decade would also see him appear as a doctor with an unsavoury accusation against him in a 2010 episode of the ABC legal comedy drama 'Rake' with Richard Roxburgh, in 2012 as an FBI agent in the JJ Abrams produced 'Alcatraz' on Fox and alongside Bryan Brown in the 2014 Australian ABC1 series 'Old School' about the adventures of a retired criminal and a retired cop in which he played the latter.

There were high profile roles in the 2015 soapy Nine Network family feud miniseries 'House of Hancock,' as an Army General accused of murdering his wife's lover in the 2015 BBC1 miniseries of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' with Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Miranda Richardson, Aidan Turner and Noah Taylor, as Lord Carnarvon in the 2016 ITV adventure drama 'Tutankhamun' with Max Irons and also an appearance as himself in Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan's 2017 Australian comedy series 'Get Krack!n' which spoofed breakfast television.

However it was his role as the corrupt and sadistic Northern Irish cop. Chief Inspector Chester Campbell in Steven Knight's stylish BBC gangster drama 'Peaky Blinders' which would attract the most attention.

Sporting an accent he worked hard on with Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt, Neill clearly had onscreen chemistry with Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory and Anabelle Wallis in the Birmingham gangster series about Thomas Shelby and his gang.

Not only did he forge a friendship with Murphy but the show made a huge impression on British and international audiences.

In cinemas, Zack Snyder directed him, Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPagkia, Joel Edgerton, Miriam Margolyes and Abbie Cornish in the well received 2010 animated adventure 'Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole' in which he provided the voice for the part of Allomerw, a great grey owl and which performed well in the US and international box office.

There was a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category of the ACTAA awards in 2011 for his role opposite Willem Dafoe and Frances O'Connor in Daniel Nettheim's well received drama 'The Hunter'.

2012 finally saw the release in Australia of a film he had worked on three years earlier that got bogged down in post production troubles.

Simone North's 'In Her Skin' also starred Guy Pearce, Miranda Otto, Ruth Bradley, Kate Bell and Rebecca Gibney and told the story of a 15 year old's murder from different perspectives with him playing the father of a neighbour who is responsible.

Screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival and Milan, it eventually got an airing on Foxtel in Australia, with Bradley winning an award for her performance as Neill's daughter.

Sam played Rachel McAdams' dad in Michael Sucsy's hit 2012 romcom 'The Vow' with Channing Tatum and Jessica Lange.

He joined Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in Mikael Hafstom's 2013 muscular hit movie 'Escape Plan' with Jim Caviezel, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Amy Ryan and Vinnie Jones in which he played the prison doctor.

Neill portrayed the former Brazilian FIFA president Joao Havelange in Frederic Auburn's English language movie 'United Passions' about the founding of international soccer's governing body opposite Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter, Martin Jarvis as Sir Stanley Rous and Gerard Depardieu as Jules Rimet.

Financed by FIFA, the $32 million movie was a major box office bomb, becoming the lowest grossing film of all time and took a pummeling from critics.

He suffered another setback when Pascal Chaumeil's 2013 movie adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel 'A Long Way Down' with Pierce Brosnan, Toni Colette, Imogen Poots, Rosamund Pike and Aaron Paul stuttered at the box office following negative reviews.

Sam earned another Best Supporting Actor ACCTA nomination in Simon Stone's 2015 family drama 'The Daughter' which was based on Henrik Ibsen's 1884 play 'The Wild Duck' and also starred Geoffrey Rush, Miranda Otto, Ewen Leslie, Paul Schneider, Odessa Young and Anna Torv.

Neill's brilliantly judged performance as a gruff foster uncle in Taika Waititi's 2016 comedy 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' earned him some of the best reviews of his career and a New Zealand Film and TV Award for Best Supporting Actor.

International critics and audiences raved about Neill's comic banter with the film's child star Julian Dennison in a film which also starred Rhys Darby and which performed impressively in Australia, the UK and Ireland and the US.

There was a heartwarming performance as a kind hearted grazer and preacher in Warwick Thornton's award winning and much lauded 2017 Aboriginal Western 'Sweet Country' with Hamilton Morris, Bryan Brown, Ewen Leslie, Natasia Gorey Furber and Thomas M Wright.

He reunited with Waititi for the well received, hugely popular, tongue in cheek Marvel superhero movie sequel 'Thor: Ragnarok' in 2017 in which he appeared as an actor portraying Anthony Hopkins' character Odin in a star studded adventure led by Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Jeff Goldblum and Mark Ruffalo.

He would reprise the role in Waititi's 2022 sequel 'Thor: Love and Thunder' which drew reviews that less enthusiastic and which struggled to make its huge budget back.

2018 saw him score further successes at the box office with an appearance in the twisty Liam Neeson led, Jaume Collet-Serra directed hit thriller 'The Commuter' with Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks and Florence Pugh and also in Will Gluck's popular family adventure 'Peter Rabbit' with Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson and the voices of James Corden, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki and Daisy Ridley in which he played Gleeson's great uncle.

He would return in Gluck's 2021 hit sequel 'Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway' to provide the voice of Tommy Brock, a homeless badger.

In 2019, Neill received the Longford Lyell Award in recognition of his career at the ACCTA awards.

That year he appeared in his friend Rachel Ward's so so comedy movie 'Palm Beach' with her husband Bryan Brown and Richard E Grant, about a group of friends reuniting in Sydney.

Roger Mitchell directed him, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Mia Wasikowka and Lindsay Duncan in 'Blackbird' in which he again played Sarandon's husband in a disappointing relationship drama about a woman whose decision to opt for euthanasia reopens family wounds. 

In the final decade of his career, Neill scored a critical and commercial success in 2020 with Jeremy Sims' 'Rams' - an Aussie remake of the 2015 Icelandic film of the same name about two sheep farmer brothers.

Starring opposite Michael Caton and Miranda Richardson, it drew mostly favourable reviews around the world and raced to the top of the box office in Australia and was especialy popular in New Zealand and Russia.

In 2023, Sam revealed he had been diagnosed with blood cancer and was undergoing treatment but he continued to work.

There was a well received 2023 Australian fantasy adventure comedy movie directed by Jeffrey Walker, 'The Portable Door' with Patrick Gibson, Sophie Wilde and Christolph Waltz which ended up on streaming platforms in Australia and the UK.

Neill played a hitwoman's boss in Camille Delamarre's poorly received 'Assassin Club' with Noomi Rapace, Henry Golding and Daniela Melchior.

Luke Sparke directed him, Barry Pepper, Rachel Griffiths, Jamie Costa and Liam McIntyre in the well received Australian crime drama 'Bring Him To Me'.

Olivia Colman, Jai Courtney, Emily Browning and Miranda Otto joined him in another quirky Aussie movie, 2025's black comedy fantasy adventure 'The Fox' in which he provided the voice of a crow.

Dario Russo's film picked up the audience award for Best Australian Feature Film at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival.

On AppleTV, he made an appearance in the pilot of Simon Kinberg and David Weil's sci-fi series 'Invasion'.

His performance as the defence lawyer Brett Colby in three seasons of the Fox Showcase Australian legal drama 'The Twelve' from 2022-25 was a hit with audiences and critics and earned him Logie Awards for Most Popular Actor for its first season and Best Actor for its third.

He played the husband of Annette Bening's character and prime suspect in her disappearance in the NBC/Peacock series 'Apples Never Fall' with Jack Lacy and Alison Brie which drew mixed reviews.

There was a famous appearance in 2024 in the Australian version of 'The Assembly,' the interview show where celebrities face questions from neurodivergent people and those with learning disabilities, which went viral when Sam welled up talking about his parents.

It had been a year since he revealed he had been receiving chemotherapy for blood cancer after noticing swollen glands while promoting 'Jurassic World: Dominion'.

His appearance on the show also came on the back of the publication of his memoirs 'Did I Ever Tell You This?'

Neill also built up a cult following during the COVID with a series of wacky videos for audiences on his social media channels.

He was a passionate farmer and vineyard owner, revealing rather amusingly on BBC1's 'The Graham Norton Show' that he named his animals after famous entertainment industry figures.

Married and divorced twice, initially to the actress Lisa Harrow and the make up artist Noriko Watanabe, he had a son with the former and a daughter with the latter.

Sam also fathered a son in his twenties who he was reunited with in 1994.

He had eight grandchildren and was romantically involved at one stage with the political journalist Laura Tingle prior to the COVID pandemic.

There were occasional forays into politics, with him giving his support to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and criticising the New South Wales Premier Mike Baird for introducing lockout laws.

He faced criticism from the right wing populist New Zealand MP Shane Jones for opposing an open cast goldmine in Cromwell, with Sam subsequently receiving a lot of online abuse.

His final television role was as the chief ranger in Yosemite National Park in the well received Netflix crime drama 'Untamed' with Eric Bana, Lily Santiago, Shea Whigham and Rosemarie DeWitt.

Before his passing, Sam filmed two movie roles in Grant Sputore's franchise sequel 'Godzilla Vs Kong: Supernova's with Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Stevens, Jack O'Connell and Delroy Lindo and Donald Petrie's Philippines set romantic comedy 'The Last Resort' with Daisy Ridley, Alden Ehrenreich and Tia Carrere.

In April 2026, he announced that scans revealed his body had been rid of cancer after undergoing T-cell therapy.

However three months later, with a compromised immune system, Sam succumbed to pneumonia and died.

The reaction to Neill's passing was a measure of how treasured he was both as a performer and as a man.

From Nicole Kidman and Jeff Goldblum to Toni Colette and Cillian Murphy. Jane Campion and Steven Spielberg to Colin Trevorrow, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to current and former New Zealand Prime Ministers, scores of public figures sung his praises.

Fellow New Zealand actor Karl Urban summed up his "truly brilliant" contribution to acting well.

"[Sam was] An inspiration for many who followed in his trailblazing footsteps," observeed.

"[He was] A beautiful man, a national treasure who gave so much to New Zealand and the world. God speed, Sam."

(Sam Neill passed away at the age of 78 on July 13, 2026)