Fans have been sending support to Jurassic Park star Sam Neill after he revealed his stage 3 blood cancer diagnosis.
The 78-year-old New Zealand actor has been battling angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare non-Hodgkin’s cancer, since March 2022 after noticing swollen glands while promoting Jurassic World Dominion.
Though initial chemotherapy failed, an experimental drug has put his cancer into remission. He now receives infusions every two weeks for life. Neill admits the treatment is tough, calling post-infusion days “grim and depressing,” but says the drug is “keeping [him] alive.”
Doctors have told him the treatment will eventually stop working, but Neill says he is “not remotely afraid” of death. “I’m prepared for that,” he said in an interview with Australian Story.
Still, he’s not ready to stop acting. “Retiring fills me with horror,” he said. He recently worked on the series Apples Never Fall before the actors’ strike halted production.
Neill has remained candid about his journey, often mixing humor with honesty. “I’m not afraid to die, but it would annoy me,” he joked. “I’d really like another decade or two… I want to see my grandkids grow up.”
During treatment, he wrote a memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, but insists it’s “not a bloody cancer book.” He chooses not to dwell on his illness, saying, “If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”
In 2025, Neill appeared at the AACTA Awards in good spirits, presenting on stage and walking the red carpet. He reflected on his fight with cancer as “a new and rather alarming world,” but continues to live and work with courage and humor.
Best known for playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, Neill’s career spans decades, with standout roles in The Piano, The Hunt for Red October, and Dead Calm.