Sam Neill obituary: A versatile actor whose roles went far beyond Jurassic Park

Neill was born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, where his father served as an officer in the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

“I was born in Omagh, we lived in Armagh and my favorite place there was Tyrella beach; I think that’s where I grew up,” Neill told the BBC in 2012.

The family moved to New Zealand when Neill was seven.

His real name was Nigel, but he began calling himself Sam after learning that his new school already had several boys named after him. He later joked that “being christened Nigel set me back many years.”

Initially, he wasn’t sure what kind of career he should pursue. Neill decided not to follow his father into the military or the hotel business his family owned.

A brief attempt at a career in the legal profession was cut short after he failed his first year of law school.

Having appeared in student productions such as Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Neill decided to begin an acting career instead.

Several films and TV series followed in New Zealand; Neill had a breakthrough role in his home country, starring in Sleeping Dogs in 1977, before moving to Australia and taking on bigger roles.

He described 1979’s My Brilliant Career as “a very important role for me, because it’s the film that took me out of New Zealand and allowed me to live and work in Australia, which I love.”

“Yeah, that was probably more transformative in a way than anything else I’ve ever done.”