Sam Neill Was Cinema’s Greatest Reluctant Dad

As announced by his family in a social media post this morning, acting legend Sam Neill has died at the age of 78. Of the heightening pile of celebrity deaths in 2026, this one feels like it hurts the most: as Jurassic Park’s weary, safari-hat-wearing adventurer-palaeontologist, Dr. Alan Grant, he was a cornerstone of Millennial nostalgia. Real movie-heads loved him for the likes of Possession, The Piano, and Event Horizon. More broadly, he just seemed like a great dude—his public appearances radiating rare, ceaseless positivity and charm. Who couldn’t love a guy who spent his autumn years making wine and looking after farm animals named after his Hollywood pals? (A cow called Helena Bonham Carter. A bull called Graham Norton. Michael Fassbender and Jeff Goldblum—a rooster and a ram.)