From Jurassic Park to The Piano, here are Sam Neill’s best roles

The finest of the Kiwis we called our own (though actually Northern Irish), Sam Neill was embraced wholeheartedly by Australian cinephiles as a man of endless charm and dashing good looks. And what a career, including everything from a First Nations-led Western to a sci-fi epic via dinosaurs!

Deeply saddened by his untimely passing, we took a look back at some of Neill’s film career highlights, many of which will surely become comfort viewing in the days to come.

My Brilliant Career 

ABC iview

Neill’s big breakthrough came with director Gillian Armstrong’s Oscar-nominated 1979 adaptation of Miles Franklin’s fantastically feminist 1901 novel. 

Casting him as the kind-hearted-but-a-bit-brash Harry Beecham, he was hopelessly devoted to Judy Davis’s Sybylla Melvyn, who only has eyes for her words as a wise writer-to-be. Their electric chemistry proved, without a doubt, that Neill had leading-man chops.

Possession 

Available to rent online

Polish director Andrzej Żuławski cast Neill alongside French superstar Isabelle Adjani as an estranged couple, Anna and Mark, in this startling, Palme d’Or-nominated psychological horror from 1981. 

Set in West Berlin and unflinchingly depicting domestic violence, it also goes all-in on a particularly graphic demonic possession by a tentacled beast straight out of HP Lovecraft’s nightmares. Magnificently unnerving, it’s A LOT.

Jurassic Park

Netflix

Bigger than a T-Rex, the box office bonanza that followed Steven Spielberg splicing the DNA of Michael Crichton’s novel into pure cinematic gold in 1993 ensured everyone in the world knew Neill’s name and believed that dinosaurs could stalk the Earth once more. 

He played grumpy palaeontologist Alan Grant to Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler and even managed to hold his own with the outsized presence of Jeff Goldblum while the reanimated monsters ran riot across Isla Nublar.

The Piano

Available to rent online

Neill joined forces with fellow claimed-by-Australia New Zealander Jane Campion for this 1993 sweeping historical drama set across the ditch during the 1800s. 

He plays colonist Alisdair Stewart, to whom Holly Hunter’s mute Scotswoman Ada McGrath is promised, only for her to fall for Harvey Keitel’s piano-playing retired sailor George Baines. It won three Oscars and the Palme d’Or — shared with Kaige Chen’s Farewell My Concubine — the first time a woman director won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

SBS On Demand

Neill’s gift for wry comic timing and innate ability to convey the human kindness lurking beneath the gruff exterior of otherwise curmudgeonly types made him the perfect person for this film. 

He plays foster father Hec to breakout star Julian Dennison’s lovable rogue Ricky Baker in this sweet Taika Waititi misadventure from 2016. When they go on the run together after a tragedy, you just know you’re going to feel all the feels.

Sweet Country 

ABC iview

Loosely based on a true story, director Warwick Thornton’s (Samson and Delilah) searing indictment on colonial violence shares much in common with the American tradition of the Western, but as told from a First Nations perspective. 

Hamilton Morris and Natassia Gorey Furber are excellent as the husband and wife, Sam and Lizzie, who are terrorised by Ewen Leslie’s real bad man, Harry. Neill plays Harry’s neighbour, preacher Fred Smith, who is powerless to save them in this unforgettable film that won the Special Jury Prize at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.

Death in Brunswick 

ABC iview

Playing out in the inner-northern Melbourne suburb that lends the film its name, this darkly comic 1990 adaptation of the Boyd Oxlade novel stars Neill as Carl, a chef who falls for Sophie (Zoe Carides), the Greek Australian daughter of dubious club owner Yanni (Nicholas Papademetriou). 

His wandering heart leads to a whole lot of trouble when he accidentally kills a colleague and goes to great lengths to cover up his involvement (quite literally, in an already occupied grave).

Rams 

Stan

This 2020 remake of Icelandic filmmaker Grímur Hákonarson’s 2015 hit has been relocated to Mount Barker in remote Western Australia, now directed by Last Cab to Darwin’s Jeremy Sims. 

Neill plays Colin, a spiky but decent man, who is knee-deep in a 40-year feud with his fellow sheep farming brother Les (The Castle’s Michael Caton). The pair are forced to bury the hatchet when an outbreak of Ovine Johne’s disease threatens their flocks.

Dead Calm

ABC iview

In a dream-team pairing, Neill plays stoic navy officer John to a young Nicole Kidman’s desolate Rae, a grieving couple strained by the devastating loss of their young son in a car accident. 

Deciding to set sail to get away from it all, their R&R is crashed by Billy Zane’s murderous soul, Hughie, lost at sea in more ways than one in this gripping 1989 thriller directed by the inimitable Phillip Noyce. You’ll forget to breathe as it all kicks off below deck.

The Dish 

Stan

Speaking of sheep farms, that’s the setting for Utopia star and writer Rob Sitch’s 2000 comedy. Set in the small town of Parkes in the Central West region of New South Wales, it’s also the location of the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope — aka ‘The Dish’ — which helped support the broadcast of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing in this true story. 

Neill plays the boffin in charge of this momentous mission. A feel-good adventure movie that mainlines community spirit and the can-do attitude of have-a-go heroes.

Event Horizon 

Available to rent online

Space, the final frontier, is front and centre in this 1997 sci-fi epic helmed by director Paul WS Anderson, which was hacked to pieces by the studio and, perhaps unfairly, maligned by critics at the time. It’s an enjoyably gory, twisty-turny action movie with an enviable cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Joely Richardson and Jason Isaacs. 

Neill plays Dr William Weir, the mysterious designer of the missing titular ship the crew of the Lewis and Clark are tasked with retrieving, after it reappears next to Neptune seven years after disappearing. All hell breaks loose when they board. In a nice touch, Weir, an Australian in 2047, wears a badge on his uniform that depicts the Aboriginal flag in place of the Union Jack, at Neill’s behest.

The Fox 

Coming to cinemas in 2026

What could be more fitting, for as roguishly charming an actor as Sam Neill, than lending his dulcet vocals to an outrageously sweary, but inarguably very funny, magpie in his final feature credit released to date, The Fox? Dario Russo’s dark fable casts Jai Courtney as the dubious Nick, the fiancé of Emily Browning’s increasingly uninterested Kori. 

But when he is made an Obsession-like promise by a sneaky fox (voiced by Olivia Colman) that Kori will adore him if only he throws her down a mysterious hole in the forest, Nick rightly cops a torrent of boisterous backchat from Neill’s cheeky feathered chappy. Fly high, legend.

Sam Neill on TV

While Neill made his biggest impact on the silver screen, he spent plenty of time on Australian (and international) television, too — whether in character or as himself. You can find some of the most notable appearances on:

Merlin — Prime

The Simpsons (s5 ep11) — Disney+

Australian Story — ABC iview

Peaky Blinders — Netflix

Fisk — ABC iview

The Twelve — Binge/Foxtel 

Apples Never Fall — Binge/Foxtel 

The Assembly — ABC iview