“A Cruel Final Illness!”: Jurassic Park legend Sam Neill leaves millions of fans completely paralyzed with shock and in floods of devastating tears after a shattering, brutal reality emerges about his tragic passing just moments after an extraordinary miracle cancer victory
Journalist Laura Tingle said her ex-partner’s body “sort of got a bit exhausted” in Neill’s final weeks, as his cause of death was revealed by a NZ publication.
Sam Neill, 78, succumbed to pneumonia at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, a New Zealand publication has reported.
Neill’s ex-partner, the journalist Laura Tingle, told ABC Radio Sydney his “poor old body just sort of got a bit exhausted”.
“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. He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy and, thankfully, it finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he had, but that left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system.”
New Zealand Herald spoke to Rima Te Wiata, a friend of Neill’s and his co-star in the hit film Hunt For The Wilderpeople, who said he had been sick with the lung infection recently.
Neill was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in 2022. When chemotherapy stopped working on his stage-three blood cancer, he started a new treatment and announced in April this year that he was cancer free.
As a result, his death on Monday came as shock to both his family and fans.
Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill dies; Richard Scolyer honoured at Opera House
In a statement, Neill’s family shared their heartbreak at his “sudden and unexpected” death.
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing,” the family said in a social media post on Monday.
“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 family expressed their “deepest gratitude” to 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 statement read.
Following the heartbreaking announcement in a statement on Monday, tributes have begun emerging honouring the legendary star’s incredible body of work and loving personality.
Among those were Laura Tingle, who quietly dated the movie star for three years between 2018 and 2021.
“Sweet dreams darling Sam,” Tingle captioned an Instagram tribute to her ex-partner overnight, alongside a slideshow of photos and videos of the couple in candid moments, away from the public eye.
Australian acting legend and Neill’s longtime friend, Nicole Kidman, was among those who shared their memories with the star.
“He was one of the greats. … A joy to be around,” Kidman, who co-starred with Neill in 1989 thriller Dead Calm, told the Sydney Morning Herald in a statement on Monday.
“We met when I was just 18, and he took me under his wing and we stayed friends for life.
“He was charming, kind, funny, and intelligent. He will be greatly missed, and my heart goes out to his family.”
His Jurassic Park co-star, Laura Dern, honoured her late pal in a statement shared with Variety.
“Sam was my beloved lifetime friend… 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.”