Actor Sir Sam Neill, famed for his leading role in Jurassic Park, has died aged 78.

The news was announced in statement on Instagram by his family, who described his death in Sydney, Australia as “sudden and unexpected”.

Sir Sam, who was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in New Zealand, died “surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life”.

He had leading roles in numerous films including The Piano and The Hunt for Red October. More recently, he played a police officer in BBC TV drama series Peaky Blinders.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon paid tribute, describing him as “one of the greats”.

His family thanked staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their care and said further details would be shared at a later date.

“But for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss,” the statement added.

In March 2023, Sir Sam revealed he had been undergoing chemotherapy for a year after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system.

He later said the disease was in remission, although he would require monthly chemotherapy for the rest of his life.

In April 2026, Sir Sam told Australia’s 7 News, external that a recent scan showed no cancer in his body.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Sir Sam “started out when there was barely a film industry in this country to speak of”.

“For more than fifty years he took New Zealand stories to the world and his talents helped make our film industry into what it is today – one of our greatest cultural exports,” he wrote on X.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also paid tribute, writing on X that he “starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts”.

Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1947, he moved to Christchurch, New Zealand, with his family as a child.

He adopted the name Sam at the age of 12 because there were several Nigels at his school.

He began acting while studying at the University of Canterbury and made his film debut in 1971’s The City of No. After a number of television and film roles in New Zealand, he gained wider recognition in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, one of the country’s first films to achieve international distribution.

He later moved to Australia, where he starred in My Brilliant Career (1979), a film that helped establish him as a leading actor.

Sir Sam achieved global fame in 1993 through his performances in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Piano and as palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. He reprised the role in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and voiced the character in three video games based on the series.

He also found success on television, playing the sadistic, corrupt police officer Major Chester Campbell in the first two series of the BBC’s Peaky Blinders.

His last film appearance came in The Fox (2025) and his last TV appearance came in Netflix series Untamed (2025). He is expected to make posthumous appearances in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort in 2027.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, he amassed more than 150 screen credits.

Sir Sam was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991 for services to acting. He was later made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 and accepted a knighthood in 2022 after changes to New Zealand’s honours system allowed recipients to adopt titular honours.

In his 2023 memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, he revealed details of his cancer diagnosis and treatment.

“I’m not afraid of dying,” he told the BBC at the time. “What I don’t want to do is to stop living, because I really enjoy living.”

He added: “I’ve regarded it as an adventure, quite a dark adventure, but an adventure nevertheless.”

Sir Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.