In Memoriam: Sam Neill’s Best Roles

Legendary actor Sam Neill passed away on Monday, July 13, in Sydney, Australia, at the age of 78. The New Zealand-born performer’s multi-decade career spanned everything from major film and television roles to late-in-life social media stardom thanks to his regular adorable videos with animals and charming updates from his family wine farm,

“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing,” said the statement posted to the actor’s Instagram page. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life.”

(Whānau is the Māori word for extended family or community.)

To most, Neill will forever be known as Jurassic Park’s Alan Grant, the paleontologist struck dumb by the wonder of living dinosaurs — and an incredible example of positive masculinity that our film industry could still learn from!! — but Stephen Spielberg’s classic was hardly his only memorable role.

Here are some of his best, and where to find them online.

Possession

A cult classic that starts as a familiar marital drama before transitioning into a bizarre supernatural allegory-slash-disturbing body horror, the controversial film Possession was initially banned in the U.K. and not released in U.S. theaters until two years later, and only after heavy editing.

The film stars Neill and Isabelle Adjani (La Reine Margot) as Mark and Anna, a married couple whose relationship takes a dark and disturbing turn when she admits to an affair and asks for a divorce. Adjani usually wins the majority of accolades for her completely unhinged (complimentary) performance as Anna. But Neill more than matches her in intensity, effortlessly shifting among darkness, hysteria, and rage. Not for the faint of heart.

Possession is available to rent or purchase on Apple TV, Fandango, Google Play Movies, and other retailers.

Dead Calm

An adaptation of Charles Williams’s novel of the same name, director Philip Noyce’s take on Dead Calm has peak 1980s thriller vibes.

Neil stars opposite Nicole Kidman (Nine Perfect Strangers) as a married couple trying to process the death of their son by spending time together in isolation, sailing along the Australian coast. Things take a decidedly weird — and eventually quite dark — turn when they rescue a stranger (Billy Zane) from what appears to be a sinking ship. But while the survivor, Hughie Warriner, claims the crew all died from food poisoning, it seems like something much more sinister has been going on. Zane’s turn as an unhinged killer is super fun, and Neill and Kidman have excellent chemistry.

Dead Calm is available on Tubi.

Jurassic Park

Despite his many roles across film and television, Neil is almost certainly best known for his role in director Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park. His turn as a grumpy paleontologist, Dr. Alan Grant, who reluctantly visits industrialist John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) eponymous theme park, only to find himself gloriously enraptured by the dinosaurs he didn’t want to believe existed, is both charming and nerdily heroic in a way action movies rarely indulge nowadays.

Alongside Laura Dern as paleobotanist Ellie Sattler and Jeff Goldblum as mathematician Ian Malcolm, the iconic trio ultimately battles everything from velociraptors to corporate greed as they struggle to survive the park’s inevitable collapse. (Neil returned to the role in 2001’s Jurassic Park III and then again in 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion, which finally saw Alan and Ellie get together romantically.)

Sadly, the original Jurassic Park is only available to rent or purchase online at the moment. But one has to assume that will change soon with the news of Neill’s passing.

Merlin

The 1998 high-fantasy TV movie Merlin is... well, not the most traditionally faithful take on the Arthurian legend. It feels more than a bit dated, particularly in light of some of the adaptations that have come after it, particularly the BBC’s (excellent) five-season Merlin.

But Neill brings a surprising amount of gravitas to the role of the famous wizard, and the production has a uniquely melancholy sheen that lends the story a doomed inevitability that more folklore- or fairy-tale-based interpretations lack.

Merlin is available on Peacock, Sling TV, and Tubi.

Until the End of the World

Technically, Wim Wenders’ 1991 sci-fi epic Until the End of the World stars Solveig Dommartin as Claire Tourneur and William Hurt as Sam Farber, the man obsessed with her. However, Sam Neill steals the film half out from under them as the film’s author/narrator, Eugene. Set in a future 1999, a nuclear satellite has gone rogue as Claire leads both men on a merry chase across the globe, including Paris, Berlin, Beijing, the Outback, and ultimately into orbit. Don’t sleep on the film’s soundtrack either: U2, Neneh Cherry, Nick Cave, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang; it’s a who’s who of the best of the era.

The full five-hour director’s cut of Until the End of the World is available on the Criterion Channel.

The Tudors

Showtime’s The Tudors isn’t necessarily the most historically accurate depiction of the reign of King Henry VIII (particularly in later seasons when the show refused to use costuming or prosthetics for star Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Vikings) to depict the Tudor monarch’s rapid physical decline). But it’s tons of fun, deliciously soapy, and features a brilliant supporting cast that includes Natalie Dormer (The Lady), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Downton Abbey), Henry Cavill (The Witcher), James Frain (Showtrial), and Sarah Bolger (The Westies).

Neill stars in the series’ first season as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a butcher’s son who rose to become the Archbishop of York and one of Henry’s closest confidants, ultimately falling from grace after he couldn’t secure the king’s divorce from his first wife, which the king so desperately wanted.

The Tudors is available on Paramount+.

Peaky Blinders

Neill only appeared in the first two seasons of the mega-popular gangland historical drama Peaky Blinders as Chief Inspector Chester Campbell, but his character’s presence cast a long shadow. Righteous and obsessive by turns, Campbell is a Protestant detective from Northern Ireland who has been charged by Churchill with cleaning up the streets of Birmingham and is willing to do anything to take down Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby.

While Neill isn’t necessarily known for playing bad guys, he clearly has a real talent for it and throws himself into the role of Campbell with palpable relish.

Peaky Blinders is available on Netflix.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Neill joined forces with director Taika Waititi (Time Bandits) — a fellow Kiwi for the underrated comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople, the story of a foster kid and his adoptive uncle who become targets of a national manhunt after fleeing into the New Zealand bush.

His hilarious and heartwarming supporting turn as the occasionally foul-mouthed Uncle Herb, whose cranky demeanor hides a heart of gold, is one of the film’s highlights, as is his chemistry with breakout young co-star Julian Dennison (How To Train Your Dragon).

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is available on Plex.

Untamed

One of Neill’s last roles is in the Netflix wilderness thriller Untamed, which follows an investigation into a mysterious death in Yosemite National Park, but is also a story about the darkness and grief we carry with us, no matter where we happen to be.

Neill plays chief park ranger (and full-time father figure) Paul Souter, who serves as a mentor and general support system to Eric Bana’s Investigative Services Branch agent Kyle Turner as he investigates what really happened to a woman who fell from El Capitan and wrestles with his ongoing grief over the loss of his son. While Paul has secrets of his own, it’s Neill’s natural warmth as a performer that truly comes across here, and he and Bana have great chemistry together.

Untamed is available on Netflix.

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