Entertainment News

Sam Neill, Alan Grant of 'Jurassic Park' and star of 'The Piano', dies suddenly at 78

Sam Neill, the actor best known as palaeontologist Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, has died in Sydney at the age of 78, according to a family statement posted on his social media page on Monday, July 13. AP, in a report carried by NPR stations, said the statement called his death sudden and unexpected and gave no cause.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.” — family statement, via AP

Neill disclosed in 2023 that he had angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare blood cancer, and the statement said he remained cancer-free. Born in Northern Ireland in 1947, he moved to New Zealand at 7. AP listed My Brilliant Career, Dead Calm, The Piano, The Hunt for Red October and, later, Peaky Blinders, and noted his Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago and his 2023 memoir.

Reuters, in a report carried by Khaleej Times, said he had announced in April that he was cancer-free after treatment for stage-three blood cancer, and that the family thanked a private Sydney hospital. It quoted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said Neill would be much mourned and long remembered.

How each outlet framed it

• AP — a full career obituary, from 1979 to the winery and the knighthood.
• Reuters / Khaleej Times — the family statement, the cancer recovery and the Australian tribute.

What we don't know yet: neither report gave a cause of death.