Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill was a New Zealand actor and entrepreneur. His career, which spanned over five decades, involved leading roles in both independent films and blockbusters.

Born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland to an English mother and a New Zealand father, Neill moved to Christchurch with his family in 1954. Neill attended Cashmere Primary School and Medbury School, a private preparatory school. From 1961, he attended Christ's College, an Anglican boys' boarding and day school in Christchurch. He later studied at the University of Canterbury but was uncertain about a career, deciding not to follow his father into the army or the family firm. He considered law, but failed all four units in his first year. He appeared in several university productions, including playing Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Canterbury University Drama Society. He transferred from Canterbury to Victoria University of Wellington to complete his Bachelor of Arts, adding a philosophy unit.

Neill's first film was a New Zealand television film "The City of No" (1971). In 1981, he won his first big international role in "Omen III: The Final Conflict."

He owned a winery called Two Paddocks.

In his early 20s, Neill fathered a son who was placed for adoption, whom he later reunited with in 1994. In 1980, Neill met actress Lisa Harrow while filming "The Final Conflict" (1981), and they had a son. He married make-up artist Noriko Watanabe in 1989, and they had one daughter together. He also adopted Watanabe's daughter from her first marriage. They separated in 2017. He had eight grandchildren.

In March 2023, Neill revealed that he had been undergoing chemotherapy since March 2022 after being diagnosed with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Neill died on 13 July 2026 in Sydney, Australia, aged 78. He was cancer-free at the time of his death, which his family described as "sudden and unexpected."

(Source: Wikipedia) Edit Biography