Sam Neill had pneumonia before his death, co-star says, as tributes pour in

Culture & TrendsSam Neill had pneumonia before his death, co-star says, as tributes pour inNicole Kidman, Cillian Murphy and others paid tribute to Neill, who died age 78. Fellow New Zealand actor Rima Te Wiata said he had suffered with pneumonia.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Sam Neill in Sitges, Spain in 2019.David Zorrakino / Europa Press via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 14, 2026, 5:49 AM EDT / Updated July 14, 2026, 5:49 AM EDTBy Adela SulimanSam Neill, the acclaimed New Zealand actor, was suffering from pneumonia before his death on Monday, according to a co-star. Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Fellow Kiwi actor Rima Te Wiata, who appeared opposite Neill in the 2016 comedy “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” told the New Zealand Herald that Neill was not scared of dying but that he would be “annoyed” by it. “It really sucks, actually,” she told the outlet’s video show ‘Ryan Bridge TODAY.’ “I think he would be like: ‘For goodness sake, I got over my cancer. And now look, now I get pneumonia. What next?’.” But she added: “He’s on his big journey now.”Te Wiata did not offer any more detail and it was unclear how recently Neill may have been sick with pneumonia.Neill’s family announced his death at age 78 on Monday. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free,” the family said in a statement, which did not specify a cause of death. In 2023, Neill wrote in his memoir “Did I Ever Tell You This?” that he was “possibly dying” with stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But he declared himself cancer-free in April, after several years of treatment for blood cancer.Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Gran in "Jurassic Park" in 1993. Murray Close / Getty Images fileTributes have poured in globally for Neill, who was best known for his role playing paleontologist Alan Grant in “Jurassic Park” in 1993, alongside actors Laura Dern, Je...