Following the news of Sam Neill’s tragic passing, the actor’s co-star has revealed a second health battle with pneumonia and his ex-partner has shed further light on his health leading up to his death at age 78. Neill was a true acting legend, having starred in classics like Possession, Jurassic Park, and Peaky Blinders. But he was also a legend off screen, advocating for peace in Gaza, LGBTQ+ rights and conservation. In 2023, Neill revealed that he was being treated for stage-three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of blood cancer known as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, having been diagnosed the year prior. He later confirmed that he was in remission thanks to a rare anti-cancer drug, before announcing that he was cancer-free in April this year. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SamNeillTheProp (@samneilltheprop) It’s one of many reasons news of his death came as such a shock. Neill’s family confirmed his passing via a post on his Instagram page, saying he died on Monday, July 13th, in Sydney, Australia. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free,” the statement reads. The family shared gratitude towards the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. “More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss,” the post finished. Sam Neill had pneumonia as cancer treatment had ‘taken a toll’ Now, Rima Te Wiata – who starred alongside Neill in the 2016 film Hunt for the Wilderpeople and remained friends with him – has spoken to the New Zealand Herald to say the actor had pneumonia before his death. “It really sucks,” Wiata said, adding, “He’s not scared of death but he would be annoyed. I think he would be like, ‘Oh for goodness sake, I got over my cancer and now look, now I get pneumonia.’ But he’s on his big journey now.” Journalist Laura Tingle, who dated Neill between 2018 and 2021, shed further light on the actor’s condition in recent weeks, saying that the cancer treatment had left his immune system “pretty compromised”. “He’d been fighting various forms of cancer for at least the last five years intensively. And that takes a toll on anybody’s body,” Tingle said on the radio show Sydney Mornings. “He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy and, thankfully, it had finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he’d had. “But it left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system and I think his poor body sort of got a bit exhausted, as makes sense. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura Dern (@lauradern) “So he’s been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks and everybody who loved him has been willing him on, from near and far. But I think it was just a bit too much to recover from one more time.” For now, tributes continue to pour in for Neill, including from his Jurassic co-star Laura Dern, who shared a carousel of photos of the pair on Instagram. “Sam was my beloved lifetime friend,” she wrote. “He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness, and love, always with the driest of wit. He was a true and noble gentleman, wrapped up in my dream leading man. I will love you forever, Dr. Alan Grant.” Following this, Dern posted a behind-the-scenes photo of the pair arm-in-arm. Featured image credit: James Gourley/Shutterstock/Universal Pictures Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
