“Jurassic Park” star Sam Neill has died of pneumonia, his representative confirmed Thursday.
The BBC reported that Neil’s long-time agent, Philip Grenz, decided to reveal the cause after speaking with Neil’s family to correct “inaccuracies and outright falsehoods” in the media. Neil, who died on Monday in Sydney, Australia, at the age of 78, had been battling a type of blood cancer since 2022, but revealed in April that he was cancer-free. Neil’s family said in a statement that his death was “sudden and unexpected.”
“As Sam Neill’s long-time representative, I would like to speak with his family and clarify the details for his fans,” Grenz said in a statement. “Sam passed away from pneumonia. Prior to his illness, Sam had bravely battled and overcame lymphoma with a new treatment called CAR-T therapy.”
Grenz added that Neil has “shot four projects in quick succession…all of which are scheduled to be released in the coming months” over the past year.
He added: “I would like to thank those truly close to Sam for considering his privacy with the respect he has earned and the respect his loved ones need and deserve during this incredibly difficult time.”
Neil’s cause of death was pneumonia, which was first revealed on Tuesday by fellow New Zealand actor Rima Te Waita, who co-starred with him in the 2016 film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
“It’s actually really bad,” Te Wiata told the New Zealand Herald. “I think he’ll say, ‘For God’s sake, I beat cancer. And now I got pneumonia. What’s next?’
Neil’s ex-girlfriend, Australian journalist Laura Tingle, also told Sydney Mornings that Neil had been “quite unwell for several weeks” before his death.
“He had been battling various types of cancer intensively for at least the past five years, and that takes a huge toll on anyone’s body,” she said. “He’s been undergoing a lot of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and thankfully the blood cancer he was suffering from has finally been cured, but his immune system has been pretty compromised by that, and I think his poor body was understandably a bit exhausted.”
