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“Jurassic Park” star Sam Neill had been “pretty sick” for a couple of weeks before his death, according to his ex, Australian journalist Laura Tingle.
Tingle, who dated Neill from 2018 to 2021, was a guest on the radio
show “Sydney Mornings” on Tuesday and gave more insight into the actor’s final days and years-long battle with cancer. Neill died on Monday at the age of 78, with his family saying that the loss was “sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.” He had been battling a form of blood cancer since 2022, but revealed in April that he was cancer free.
“He’d been fighting various forms of cancer for at least the last five years intensively. And that takes a toll on anybody’s body,” Tingle told “Sydney Mornings” host Hamish Macdonald (via Entertainment Weekly).
“He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy and, thankfully, it had finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he’d had, but it left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system and I think his poor body sort of got a bit exhausted, as makes sense,” she continued. “So, 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.”
Neill’s fellow New Zealand actor Rima Te Wiata, who co-starred with him in 2016’s “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” also told the New Zealand Herald that he caught pneumonia before he died.
“It really sucks, actually,” Te Wiata said. “I think he would be like: ‘For goodness sake, I got over my cancer. And now look, now I get pneumonia. What next?'” She added that Neill is “on his big journey now.”
Neill’s family did not include a cause of death in their announcement but said that they “would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at 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.”
After news of his death broke, Neill was celebrated by his “Jurassic Park” family as well as celebritiesacross the industry. Steven Spielberg praised him as “exceptionally collaborative,” saying: “I adored making all the ‘Jurassic’ movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our ‘Jurassic’ family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Laura Dern, who played Ellie Sattler opposite Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant in the original “Jurassic Park” and 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion,” remembered him in a heartfelt statement. “Sam was my beloved lifetime friend,” she sad. “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.”
