更新于：2026年7月13日 / 美国东部时间凌晨2:34 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
新西兰惠灵顿电——山姆·尼尔这位风度翩翩、戏路宽广的演员辞世，享年78岁。他的演艺生涯从艺术电影起步，转战商业大片：曾在《侏罗纪公园》中躲避迅猛龙，也在《钢琴课》里饰演霍莉·亨特的丈夫。
2023年，尼尔对外披露自己被诊断出患有血管免疫母细胞性T细胞淋巴瘤——一种罕见的非霍奇金淋巴瘤。据演员社交页面发布的家庭声明显示，尼尔于周一在悉尼去世。
声明称他的死“突然且出人意料”，并补充说他去世时“已无癌症”。声明未具体说明死因。
据法新社报道，尼尔今年曾透露，得益于改造免疫系统的基因疗法，他已痊愈。
“山姆在家人的陪伴下离世，他一生都保有尊严。”他的家人写道。
山姆·尼尔于2021年12月8日出席在澳大利亚悉尼悉尼歌剧院举办的由福泰尔集团冠名的澳大利亚影视艺术学院奖颁奖典礼。马克·梅特卡夫/盖蒂图片社 澳大利亚电影学院供图
尼尔是上世纪70年代末澳大利亚电影爆发式发展后，跻身国际知名行列的一众演员和导演之一，该群体还包括保罗·霍根、梅尔·吉布森、杰弗里·拉什、罗素·克劳、简·坎皮恩、彼得·威尔和吉莉安·阿姆斯特朗。
他的戏路极具广度：曾与海伦娜·伯翰·卡特合作出演艾伦·艾克伯恩的喜剧《甜蜜复仇》，在《钢琴课》中砍去亨特饰演的角色的手指，还在科幻恐怖电影《黑洞表面》中抠出自己的眼睛。
在《凶兆3：最终冲突》中，他饰演反基督者达米安，还在《都铎王朝》中饰演红衣主教托马斯·沃尔西。
尼尔首次获得国际观众关注是在阿姆斯特朗1979年的电影《我的璀璨生涯》中，该片同时也让朱迪·戴维斯崭露头角。此后他出演了菲利普·诺伊斯执导的海上经典惊悚片《航越地平线》，当时尚默默无闻的妮可·基德曼也在片中担任联合主演。
尼尔曾两次与梅丽尔·斯特里普合作：一次是在澳大利亚导演弗雷德·谢皮西的《谁为我伴》中，另一次同样是为谢皮西执导的《暗夜哭声》——这部电影讲述了澳大利亚内陆地区丁格犬咬死婴儿事件被大肆渲染后的后续风波。他凭借1998年迷你剧《梅林传奇》的主角表演获得艾美奖提名，并凭借2017年纪录片《野性新西兰》的旁白工作再次获得该奖项提名。
但他最广为人知的角色或许还是《侏罗纪公园》中的古生物学家艾伦·格兰特：这位科学家被召集到哥斯达黎加附近一座建有克隆恐龙主题公园的岛屿。他与劳拉·邓恩、杰夫·高布伦和理查德·阿滕伯勒联袂出演。
他饰演的角色深思熟虑、理性克制，在混乱爆发前曾警告主题公园的策划者：“恐龙和人类，这两个相隔了6500万年进化史的物种，突然被重新放在了一起。我们怎么可能知道会发生什么？”
格兰特在恐龙脱逃的惊魂事件中幸存下来，但并未回归1997年的《侏罗纪公园2：失落的世界》。他在2001年的第三部系列电影以及2022年的《侏罗纪世界：统治》中回归。
“现在才明白这些道理可能有点晚了，”他2001年在接受《纽约每日新闻》采访时表示，“但我终于觉得自己摸清了如何成为一名动作英雄。这次我在饰演格兰特时更得心应手了。他变得粗犷沧桑，但看起来确实知道自己在做什么。”
尼尔1947年出生于北爱尔兰，7岁时移民新西兰。家人在南岛的达尼丁定居，他被送到基督城的寄宿学校就读。大学毕业后，他在1977年的《沉睡的狗》中担任主角——这是新西兰十余年来首部本土制作的长片电影。
尼尔的其他电影角色还包括：在《猎杀红色十月》中饰演一名念念不忘蒙大拿州家乡的苏联潜艇军官，以及在约翰·卡朋特执导的《战栗黑洞》中饰演一名调查员。
在小屏幕领域，尼尔在电视剧《浴血黑帮》中饰演邪恶的切斯特·坎贝尔，还在哥伦比亚广播公司四小时迷你剧《萨莉·赫明斯：美国悲剧》中饰演托马斯·杰斐逊。在苹果电视+的剧集《入侵》中，他饰演俄克拉荷马州警长约翰·贝尔·泰森——一位在职业生涯后期寻找人生意义的男人。2024年，他与安妮特·贝宁联袂主演孔雀台剧集《苹果永不落》。
尼尔同时也是一名酿酒师，他创立的“双牧场”品牌，在新西兰南岛中部奥塔哥地区的酒庄生产黑皮诺和雷司令葡萄酒。
在社交平台上，他经常分享农场动物的照片，其中许多都以名人和朋友的名字亲昵命名：比如名为劳拉·邓恩的鸡、凯莉·米洛的鸭，以及海伦娜·伯翰·卡特的牛。
他的回忆录《我曾对你说过吗？》于2023年3月出版，他还因“对电影的杰出贡献”被授予爵士头衔，该荣誉由已故女王伊丽莎白二世批准。
“我无法否认过去一年有过黑暗时刻，”2023年尼尔在接受《卫报》采访时谈及自己的癌症诊断和治疗，“但那些黑暗时刻让光明显得格外清晰，你懂的，这让我感激每一天，也无比感激所有的朋友。”
他留下了4个子女和8个孙辈。
Sam Neill, “Jurassic Park” and “The Piano” star, dies at 78
Updated on: July 13, 2026 / 2:34 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Wellington, New Zealand— Sam Neill, a smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose career moved from art film to blockbuster as he dodged velociraptors in “Jurassic Park” to playing Holly Hunter’s husband in “The Piano,” has died. He was 78.
In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Neill died on Monday in Sydney, according to a family statement posted to the actor’s social media page.
His death was “sudden and unexpected,” the statement said, adding that he “remained cancer free” when he died. A cause of death wasn’t specified.
Neill disclosed this year that he was cancer-free thanks to a genetic therapy that modified his immune system, French news agency AFP says.
“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” his family wrote.
Sam Neill arrives ahead of the 2021 AACTA Awards Presented by Foxtel Group at the Sydney Opera House on December 08, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images for AFI
Neil was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s, a list that includes Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong.
His range was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy “Sweet Revenge” to chopping off Hunter’s finger in “The Piano” to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror “Event Horizon.”
In “Omen III: The Final Conflict,” he played Damien the Antichrist and he also played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in “The Tudors.”
The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong’s 1979 film “My Brilliant Career,” which also introduced Judy Davis. He later appeared in Phillip Noyce’s “Dead Calm,” a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.
Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi’s “Plenty” and – again for Schepisi – in “A Cry in the Dark,” a film about the sensationalized aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback. He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 mini-series “Merlin” and another as narrator of 2017’s “Wild New Zealand.”
But perhaps he achieved his highest level of fame in “Jurassic Park” playing paleontologist Alan Grant, who is summoned to an island off Costa Rica where a theme park has been built to house herds of cloned dinosaurs. He co-starred alongside Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough.
His character was thoughtful and reasonable, a scientist who warned the mastermind of the theme park before the chaos: “Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?”
Grant survived the harrowing events when the creatures get loose, but didn’t return for “The Lost World: Jurassic Park II” in 1997. He came back for the third episode in 2001 and “Jurassic World: Dominion” in 2022.
“It’s probably a little late to learn these things,” he told the Daily New of New York in 2001, “but I finally feel I’ve worked out how to be an action hero. I’m happier with Grant this time. He’s gnarly and grizzled, but he looks like he knows what he’s doing.”
Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, Neill emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 7. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island and he was sent to boarding school in Christchurch. After college, he took the lead in “Sleeping Dogs” in 1977, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade.
Neill’s other film roles included playing a Soviet submarine officer who memorably dreams of a home in Montana in “The Hunt for Red October” and an investigator in director John Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness.”
On the small screen, Neill played the malign Chester Campbell in TV’s “Peaky Blinders” and Thomas Jefferson in the four-hour CBS miniseries, “Sally Hemings: An American Tragedy.” On Apple TV+, he was on “Invasion,” playing Oklahoma Sheriff John Bell Tyson, a man late in his career searching for his purpose. In 2024 he starred opposite Annette Bening in the Peacock series “Apples Never Fall.”
Neill was also a vintner and under his Two Paddocks brand, he produced pinot noir and riesling wines from his winery in the Central Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island.
On social media, he often posted images of his farm animals, many of them affectionately named after celebrities and friends, like Laura Dern the chicken, Kylie Minogue the duck and Helena Bonham Carter the cow.
His memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This?” came out in March 2023 and he was awarded a knighthood in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to film,” a title approved by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” Neill told The Guardian in 2023, referring to his cancer diagnosis and treatment. “But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends.”
He is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.