Sam Neill DCNZM OBE |
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Neill at the 2010 Vancouver International Wine Festival.
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Born |
Nigel John Dermot Neill 14 September 1947 Omagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom |
Residence | Queenstown, New Zealand |
Nationality | New Zealander and British |
Education | Christ's College |
Alma mater | University of Canterbury |
Occupation | Actor, voice actor |
Years active | 1975–present |
Spouse(s) |
Lisa Harrow (m. 1978; div. 1989) Noriko Watanabe (m. 1989) |
Children | 3 (one stepdaughter) |
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill DCNZM OBE (born 14 September 1947), known professionally as Sam Neill, is a Northern Irish born New Zealand actor who first achieved leading roles in films such as Omen III: The Final Conflict and Dead Calm and on television in Reilly, Ace of Spies. He won a broad international audience in 1993 for his roles as Alisdair Stewart in The Piano and Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, a role he reprised in 2001's Jurassic Park III. Neill also had notable roles in Merlin, The Hunt for Red October, Peaky Blinders and The Tudors. In 2016, he starred in Hunt for the Wilderpeople alongside Julian Dennison, to great acclaim. He holds New Zealand and British nationality, but identifies primarily as a New Zealander.
Neill was born in 1947 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, the second son of Dermot Neill, a Harrow- and Sandhurst-educated British Army officer and third-generation New Zealander, and his English wife, Priscilla Beatrice (née Ingham). At the time of Neill's birth, his father was stationed in Northern Ireland, serving with the Irish Guards. His father's family owned Neill and Co., the largest liquor retailers in New Zealand.