Sam Neill

He spent years building a credible career before Hollywood figured out what to do with him. Reilly, Ace of Spies in 1983 got him a Golden Globe nomination and British TV stardom, but the American market took another decade. Then 1993 happened: Steven Spielberg cast him as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, and Jane Campion cast him in The Piano, and both films dominated the cultural conversation that year. Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million worldwide. Most actors get one franchise-defining role. He got two defining films in the same year.

In 2022, during publicity for Jurassic World Dominion, he was diagnosed with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. He wrote his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, while going through chemotherapy. The chemo eventually stopped working. Doctors switched him to a rare anti-cancer drug, got him into remission, and told him it won't hold forever. His response was to say he isn't afraid of dying. Two Paddocks, his Central Otago winery, keeps producing pinot noir. He keeps taking roles. That turns out to be a more interesting story than Jurassic Park.

His name isn't Sam. He was born Nigel Neill in Northern Ireland and changed it at school because he thought 'Nigel' was too effete for a New Zealand playground. A severe childhood stutter made him dread conversation. He enrolled in law school, failed every unit, and ended up in acting more or less by accident. His Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago predates his second wave of fame: he planted the first vines in 1993, the same year Jurassic Park came out.