Sam Neill

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Birthday:

14 September 1947, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, UK

Birth Name:

Nigel Neill

Height:

182 cm

Sam Neill was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to army parents, an English-born mother, Priscilla Beatrice (Ingham), and a New Zealand-born father, Dermot Neill. His family moved to the South Island of New Zealand in 1954. He went to boarding schools and then attended the universities at Canterbury and Victoria. He has a BA in English Literature. Following his graduation, he worked with the New Zealand Players and other theater groups. He also was a film director, editor and scriptwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for 6 years.Sam Neill is internationally recognised for his contribution to film and television. He is well known for his roles in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and Jane Campion's Academy Award Winning film The Piano. Other film roles include The Daughter, Backtrack opposite Adrian Brody, Deux Ex Machina, F2014, A Long Way Down, The Tomb, The Hunter with Willem Dafoe, Daybreakers, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of G'Ahoole, Little Fish opposite Cate Blanchett, Skin, Dean Spanley, Wimbledon, Yes, Perfect Strangers, Dirty Deeds, The Zookeepers, Bicenntial Man opposite Robin Williams, The Horse Whisperer alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, Sleeping Dogs, My Brilliant Career.He received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the NBC miniseries Merlin. He also received a Golden Globe nomination for One Against The Wind, and for Reilly: The Ace of Spies. The British Academy of Film and Television honoured Sam's work in Reilly by naming him Best Actor. Sam received an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in Jessica.Other television includes House of Hancock, Rake, Doctor Zhivago, To the Ends of Earth, The Tudors with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Cruseo, Alcatraz and recently in Old School opposite Bryan Brown, Peaky Blinders alongside Cillian Murphy, The Dovekeepers for CBS Studios. Show less «

"Of all the characters I've played, I think I have more in common with that guy than with Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) referring to Carl Fitz...Show more »

"Of all the characters I've played, I think I have more in common with that guy than with Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) referring to Carl Fitzgerald in Death in Brunswick (1990). Who Weekly (NZ) 8/23/93. Show less «

Referring to The Simpsons (1989): "I'm playing a cat burglar. I've made it. This is the high point of my career. I'm really chuffed". EW, 7/...Show more »

Referring to The Simpsons (1989): "I'm playing a cat burglar. I've made it. This is the high point of my career. I'm really chuffed". EW, 7/23/93. Show less «

"Perhaps we should look at somewhere else where they recently used the time-old bribe of tax cuts, and see how it worked. In 2000, George W....Show more »

"Perhaps we should look at somewhere else where they recently used the time-old bribe of tax cuts, and see how it worked. In 2000, George W. Bush, under the reasonable sounding 'compassionate conservatism', offered huge tax cuts. And he delivered. Take a look at America now. The rich are certainly richer, but the economy is in the tank, a healthy surplus has been converted into a massive deficit, and the U.S. is a place that cannot even afford the basics. Like maintaining levees in low-lying Louisiana. Might I suggest that tax cuts led indirectly to the flooding of New Orleans?". Show less «

If all I did was acting, I'd go out of my mind.

The pathetic thing about actors is they don't feel valid unless they're acting.

(2012, on My Brilliant Career) A most important role for me, I must say, because that's the film that took me out of New Zealand, the film t...Show more »

(2012, on My Brilliant Career) A most important role for me, I must say, because that's the film that took me out of New Zealand, the film that allowed me to live and work in Australia, which I love. Yeah, that was probably more transformative than anything else I've done, in a way. Without that film, I never would've-prior to that, I'd done Sleeping Dogs, and I thought, "That was a one-off, I'll never do another film." And if you look at Sleeping Dogs, you think, "Well, I wouldn't use that bugger again." But I did get cast in Brilliant Career, I kind of understood a little bit more about what was necessary, and it was a great opportunity for me. That film changed me into an actor rather than just a part-time thespian. Show less «

(2012, on Dead Calm) Well, that was fantastically good fun, actually, although quite a lot of the time we were seasick and cold and wet and ...Show more »

(2012, on Dead Calm) Well, that was fantastically good fun, actually, although quite a lot of the time we were seasick and cold and wet and stuff like that. It was a very interesting film to do, as there were only three characters, you know, but it works very well, and it built quite a few careers. For [director] Phillip Noyce, it launched him into big action films, and there's this Australian actress called Nicole Kidman in it who you might've heard of... Show less «

(2012, on filming Sleeping Dogs and working with Warren Oates) You see, that was my first feature film of all, with my friend Roger Donaldso...Show more »

(2012, on filming Sleeping Dogs and working with Warren Oates) You see, that was my first feature film of all, with my friend Roger Donaldson, and there I really had no idea what I was doing. In fact, none of us did. Apart from Michael Seresin, who shot it, no one on that production had ever made a feature film before. In fact, there hadn't been a feature film made in New Zealand for something like 17 years. So we were really... We lit a little candle, which didn't illuminate much of the darkness in front of us, but we got through it. It's a very uneven film, and I'm pretty uneven in it. Oh, actually, the other person on the film who had any experience was, of course, the wonderful Warren Oates. He came in for about two weeks, I think, and... He discovered on day one, I think, that in the area of New Zealand where we were working, they grow the best marijuana, and so he was basically smoking joints all day. In some of the scenes where he's playing Col. Willoughby, a U.S. army advisor in New Zealand, he's addressing his men with his hands behind his back, and you might even possibly detect the little curving smoke behind his right shoulder, because he wouldn't even put the joint aside when the camera was rolling. He just put it behind his back! But Warren was a lovely guy, and when he left-I'll never forget this, actually: He shook my hand, and he said, "Goodbye, Sam! I'll see you in the movies!" It was such a surprising thing for him to say, but I was very touched by it. I never saw him again, because he died rather young not very long after that. But he lived hard, you know. And he had some great stories of the madness of working with Sam Peckinpah. Show less «

[2014, on socializing with Michael Williams and Warren Clarke during the making of Enigma (1982)] My liver is still recovering.

[on changing his name from Nigel to Sam, aged ten] I saved myself a lifetime of pain.