Sam Neill

Four years later, in 1863, he moved to New Zealand, settling in Dunedin.

He was the son of a wine merchant importing wine from France.

At the time of Neill's birth, his father was stationed in Northern Ireland, serving with the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

His father's family owned Neill and Co. (later part of the listed hospitality group Wilson Neill).

Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor.

Neill's career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters.

Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one of the most versatile actors of his generation.

Neill was born on 14 September 1947 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to Priscilla Beatrice (née Ingham) and Dermot Neill.

His father, an army officer, was a second-generation New Zealander, while his mother was English.

His great-grandfather Percival "Percy" Neill left Belfast, Ireland, and moved to Melbourne, Australia, joining a firm of merchants.

Born in Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, Neill moved to Christchurch with his family in 1954.

In 1954, Neill moved with his family to New Zealand, where he attended the Anglican boys' boarding school Christ's College, Christchurch.

He went on to study English literature at the University of Canterbury, where he had his first exposure to acting.

He moved to Wellington to continue his tertiary education at Victoria University, where he graduated with a BA in English literature.

Neill's first film was a New Zealand television film The City of No (1971).

He followed it with a short, The Water Cycle (1972) and the television film Hunt's Duffer (1973).

Neill wrote and directed a film for the New Zealand National Film Unit, Telephone Etiquette (1974).

He also appeared in Landfall (1975).

He first achieved recognition with his appearance in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, which he followed with leading roles in My Brilliant Career (1979), Omen III: The Final Conflict, Possession (both 1981), Evil Angels (also known as A Cry in the Dark) (1988), Dead Calm (1989), The Hunt For Red October (1990), The Piano (1993) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994).

Neill's breakthrough performance in New Zealand was the film Sleeping Dogs (1977), the first local film to be widely screened abroad.

Neill went to Australia where he had a guest role on the TV show The Sullivans.

He was the romantic male lead in My Brilliant Career (1979), opposite Judy Davis, which was a big international success.

He made some Australian films that were less widely seen: The Journalist (1979), Just Out of Reach (1979) and Attack Force Z (1981), and appeared in television productions such as Young Ramsay and Lucinda Brayford.

In 1981, he won his first big international role, as Damien Thorn, son of the devil, in Omen III: The Final Conflict; also in that year, he played an outstanding main role in Andrzej Żuławski's cult film Possession.

The 1982 film of Ivanhoe made Neill a local celebrity in Sweden, where it has been aired on SVT every New Years Day for 40 years.

He was one of the leading candidates to succeed Roger Moore in the role of James Bond, but lost out to Timothy Dalton.

Outside of film, Neill has appeared in numerous television series, including Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983), The Simpsons (1994), Merlin (1998), The Tudors (2007), Crusoe (2008–2010), Happy Town (2010), Alcatraz (2012), Peaky Blinders (2013–2014), and Rick and Morty (2019).

He has presented and narrated several documentaries.

In 2021, he had a one-episode role on the Apple TV+ sci-fi series Invasion.

Neill is the recipient of the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the Longford Lyell Award, the New Zealand Film Award and the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor.

He also has three Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

He won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor at the 2023 Logies.

In the UK, he won early fame and was Golden Globe nominated after portraying real-life spy, Sidney Reilly, in the mini-series Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983).

Among his many Australian roles is playing Michael Chamberlain in Evil Angels (1988) (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand), a film about the case of Azaria Chamberlain.

Neill has played heroes and occasionally villains in a succession of film and television dramas and comedies.

He came to international prominence as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (1993), a role that he reprises in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).

In 2004, on the Australian talk show Enough Rope, interviewer Andrew Denton briefly touched on the topic of Neill's stuttering.

He recalled how deeply it had affected him in his life and, as a result, he often found himself "hoping that people wouldn't talk to [him]" so he would not have to answer.

He also stated, "I kind of outgrew it. I can still ... you can still detect me as a stammerer."

He first took to calling himself "Sam" at school because there were several other students named Nigel, and because he felt the name Nigel was "a little effete for ... a New Zealand playground".