The Sam Neill filmography covers almost five decades of cinema and television, from small New Zealand and Australian films to some of the biggest blockbusters ever made. Sir Nigel John Dermot “Sam” Neill (14 September 1947 to 13 July 2026) was a New Zealand actor born in Omagh, Northern Ireland, and in this complete Sam Neill filmography you will find every film with its year, role, budget and box office. He became known through Sleeping Dogs (1977), My Brilliant Career (1979) and Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981), then won a worldwide audience in 1993 as Alisdair Stewart in The Piano and as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. He returned to the role in Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022), and he stood out in Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Peaky Blinders and Thor: Ragnarok. Neill died in Sydney on 13 July 2026 at the age of 78, and several of his last films are still to be released.

Sam Neill Quick Profile

Detail	Information
Name	Sir Nigel John Dermot “Sam” Neill
Born	14 September 1947, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Died	13 July 2026, Sydney, Australia (aged 78)
Nationality	New Zealander
Profession	Actor, director, writer, winemaker
First Screen Role	The City of No (1971, New Zealand television film)
Feature Film Debut	Sleeping Dogs (1977)
International Breakthrough	My Brilliant Career (1979) and Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)
Biggest Roles	Dr. Alan Grant (Jurassic Park), Alisdair Stewart (The Piano), Hec (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Major Chester Campbell (Peaky Blinders)
Spouse	Noriko Watanabe (married 1989)
Children	Four children, eight grandchildren
Honours	Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM), OBE
Memoir	Did I Ever Tell You This? (2023)
Winery	Two Paddocks, Central Otago, New Zealand

Sam Neill Movies List (1977–1983): New Zealand and Australian Beginnings

Neill started as a director and writer at the New Zealand National Film Unit before acting. Sleeping Dogs was the first New Zealand film to be widely shown abroad, and it was followed by Australian classics and his first Hollywood horror film.

Year	Film	Role	Budget	Box Office
1977	Sleeping Dogs	Smith	$0.4 million	$1 million
1979	The Journalist	Rex	$0.5 million	$0.5 million
1979	My Brilliant Career	Harry Beecham	$1 million	$2 million
1979	Just Out of Reach	Mike	$0.5 million	$0.5 million
1981	Possession	Mark	$3 million	$1.5 million
1981	Omen III: The Final Conflict	Damien Thorn	$6 million	$20 million
1982	Attack Force Z	Sgt. D.J. Costello	$1.5 million	$1.6 million
1983	Enigma	Dimitri Vasilikov	$6 million	$2 million

Sam Neill Movies List (1985–1992): The International Years

This phase brought him opposite Meryl Streep twice and made him a leading man in thrillers. Dead Calm and The Hunt for Red October gave him his first major commercial successes.

Year	Film	Role	Budget	Box Office
1985	Plenty	Raymond Brock	$8 million	$4 million
1986	For Love Alone	Jonathan Crow	$2 million	$0.4 million
1987	The Good Wife	Sonny Hawkins	$3 million	$0.3 million
1988	A Cry in the Dark	Michael Chamberlain	$17 million	$7 million
1989	Dead Calm	John Ingram	$8 million	$32 million
1990	Blood Oath	Major Beckett	$7 million	$2 million
1990	The Hunt for Red October	Captain Vasily Borodin	$30 million	$200 million
1991	Death in Brunswick	Carl Fitzgerald	$2 million	$1.5 million
1991	Until the End of the World	Eugene Fitzpatrick	$23 million	$1.2 million
1992	Memoirs of an Invisible Man	David Jenkins	$40 million	$14 million

Sam Neill Movies List (1993–1999): The Piano and Jurassic Park Era

In 1993 Neill appeared in two of the most important films of the decade: the Palme d’Or winner The Piano and Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. He then moved between horror, drama and big studio films.

Year	Film	Role	Budget	Box Office
1993	The Piano	Alisdair Stewart	$7 million	$140 million
1993	Jurassic Park	Dr. Alan Grant	$63 million	$1,104 million
1994	Sirens	Norman Lindsay	$7 million	$7 million
1994	Country Life	Alexander Voznesensky	$3 million	$1 million
1994	In the Mouth of Madness	John Trent	$8 million	$9 million
1995	Restoration	Robert Merivel	$18 million	$5 million
1996	Victory	Mr. Jones	$5 million	$0.5 million
1996	Children of the Revolution	Joe Welch	$5 million	$0.5 million
1997	Event Horizon	Dr. William Weir	$60 million	$42 million
1998	The Horse Whisperer	Robert MacLean	$60 million	$186 million
1998	The Revengers’ Comedies	Henry Bell	$8 million	$0.4 million
1999	Bicentennial Man	Sir Richard Martin	$100 million	$87 million
1999	Molokai: The Story of Father Damien	Rudolph Meyer	$12 million	$1 million

Sam Neill Movies List (2000–2009): Blockbusters and Independent Films

Neill returned to Jurassic Park and balanced studio films like Wimbledon and The Water Horse with Australian and New Zealand dramas.

Year	Film	Role	Budget	Box Office
2000	The Dish	Cliff Buxton	$6 million	$12 million
2001	Jurassic Park III	Dr. Alan Grant	$93 million	$369 million
2001	The Zookeepers	Supporting role	$3 million	$0.4 million
2002	Dirty Deeds	Supporting role	$8 million	$4 million
2003	Perfect Strangers	Lead role	$2 million	$1 million
2004	Wimbledon	Dennis Bartholomew	$31 million	$41.5 million
2004	Yes	Supporting role	$2 million	$0.3 million
2005	Little Fish	Lionel Dawson	$7 million	$5 million
2006	Irresistible	Lead role	$5 million	$0.4 million
2007	The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep	Old Angus MacMorrow	$40 million	$103 million
2008	Skin	Abraham Laing	$4 million	$0.3 million
2008	Dean Spanley	Wrather	$7 million	$1.5 million
2009	Daybreakers	Charles Bromley	$20 million	$51 million

Sam Neill Movies List (2010–2019): Late Career Highlights

This decade included his best known late role, Hec in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a cameo in Thor: Ragnarok, and a long run on television in Peaky Blinders.

Year	Film	Role	Budget	Box Office
2010	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (voice)	Allomere	$80 million	$140 million
2011	The Hunter	Jack Mindy	$7 million	$5 million
2012	The Vow	Bill McCarthy	$30 million	$196 million
2015	The Daughter	Henry	$4 million	$1.4 million
2015	Backtrack	Duncan Stewart	$4 million	$1 million
2016	Hunt for the Wilderpeople	Hec	$2.5 million	$26 million
2017	Sweet Country	Fred Smith	$2 million	$1.8 million
2017	Thor: Ragnarok (cameo)	Actor Playing Odin	$180 million	$854 million
2018	The Commuter	Captain Hawthorne	$30 million	$120 million
2019	Ride Like a Girl	Paddy Payne	$8 million	$8 million
2019	Palm Beach	Frank	$5 million	$2 million
2019	Blackbird	Paul	$8 million	$3 million

Sam Neill Movies List (2020–2026): Final Films

Neill came back to the Jurassic series one last time in 2022, appeared again as the actor playing Odin in Thor: Love and Thunder, and kept working through his cancer treatment. His last films are set for release in 2027.

Year	Film	Role	Budget	Box Office
2020	Rams	Colin	$3 million	$4 million
2022	Jurassic World Dominion	Dr. Alan Grant	$165 million	$1,002 million
2022	Thor: Love and Thunder (cameo)	Actor Playing Odin	$250 million	$760 million
2023	Assassin Club	Supporting role	$20 million	$5 million
2023	Scarygirl (voice)	Voice role	$15 million	$3 million

Sam Neill Television and Miniseries Work

Year	Title	Role
1971	The City of No	Actor (first screen role)
1982	Ivanhoe	Brian de Bois-Guilbert
1983	Reilly, Ace of Spies	Sidney Reilly
1985	Kane and Abel	William Kane
1987	Amerika	Supporting role
1994	The Simpsons (episode “Homer the Vigilante”)	Molloy the Cat Burglar (voice)
1996	In Cold Blood	Alvin Dewey
1998	Merlin	Merlin
2002	Doctor Zhivago	Viktor Komarovsky
2004	Jessica	Lead role
2006	Merlin’s Apprentice	Merlin
2007	The Tudors	Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
2008–2010	Crusoe	Supporting role
2010	Happy Town	Merritt Grieves
2012	Alcatraz	Emerson Hauser
2013–2014	Peaky Blinders	Major Chester Campbell
2015	And Then There Were None	General John Macarthur
2019	Rick and Morty	Guest voice
2021	Invasion	Supporting role
2022	The Twelve	Brett Colby
2024	Apples Never Fall	Stan Delaney

Sam Neill Documentaries and Directing Work

Year	Title	Role
1974	Telephone Etiquette	Writer and director
1995	Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill	Narrator, host, co-director and co-writer
1995	Forgotten Silver	Himself
2000	The Magic Pudding	Sam Sawnoff (voice)
2015	Why Anzac with Sam Neill	Presenter
2018	Uncharted with Sam Neill	Presenter

Sam Neill Hits and Flops at a Glance

Film	Year	Verdict
Sleeping Dogs	1977	Landmark of New Zealand cinema
My Brilliant Career	1979	Critical hit
Possession	1981	Cult classic
Omen III: The Final Conflict	1981	Hit
Dead Calm	1989	Hit
The Hunt for Red October	1990	Blockbuster
Until the End of the World	1991	Commercial flop, later admired
Memoirs of an Invisible Man	1992	Flop
The Piano	1993	Critical and commercial hit
Jurassic Park	1993	All-time blockbuster
In the Mouth of Madness	1994	Cult classic
Event Horizon	1997	Flop at release, now a cult classic
The Horse Whisperer	1998	Hit
Bicentennial Man	1999	Flop
Jurassic Park III	2001	Hit
Wimbledon	2004	Moderate success
The Water Horse	2007	Hit
Daybreakers	2009	Hit
The Vow	2012	Blockbuster
Hunt for the Wilderpeople	2016	Critical and commercial hit
Thor: Ragnarok	2017	Blockbuster
The Commuter	2018	Hit
Jurassic World Dominion	2022	Blockbuster

Sam Neill Top Grossing Films

Rank	Film	Worldwide Gross
1	Jurassic Park (1993)	$1,104 million
2	Jurassic World Dominion (2022)	$1,002 million
3	Thor: Ragnarok (2017)	$854 million
4	Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)	$760 million
5	Jurassic Park III (2001)	$369 million
6	The Hunt for Red October (1990)	$200 million
7	The Vow (2012)	$196 million
8	The Horse Whisperer (1998)	$186 million

Sam Neill Budget vs Box Office

The multiple is the worldwide gross divided by the budget, so a figure above 1.0 means the film earned more than it cost.

Film	Budget	Worldwide Gross	Multiple
The Piano	$7 million	$140 million	20.0x
Jurassic Park	$63 million	$1,104 million	17.5x
Hunt for Red October	$30 million	$200 million	6.7x
Dead Calm	$8 million	$32 million	4.0x
Jurassic Park III	$93 million	$369 million	4.0x
Hunt for the Wilderpeople	$2.5 million	$26 million	10.4x
Jurassic World Dominion	$165 million	$1,002 million	6.1x
Thor: Ragnarok	$180 million	$854 million	4.7x
Event Horizon	$60 million	$42 million	0.7x
Bicentennial Man	$100 million	$87 million	0.9x
Memoirs of an Invisible Man	$40 million	$14 million	0.4x

Sam Neill and Jurassic Park

Film	Year	Role	Budget	Box Office
Jurassic Park	1993	Dr. Alan Grant	$63 million	$1,104 million
Jurassic Park III	2001	Dr. Alan Grant	$93 million	$369 million
Jurassic World Dominion	2022	Dr. Alan Grant	$165 million	$1,002 million

Sam Neill Collaborations at a Glance

Collaborator	Films
Laura Dern	Jurassic Park (1993), Jurassic Park III (2001), Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Jeff Goldblum	Jurassic Park (1993), Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Steven Spielberg	Jurassic Park (1993)
Jane Campion	The Piano (1993)
Taika Waititi	Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Meryl Streep	Plenty (1985), A Cry in the Dark (1988)
Nicole Kidman	Dead Calm (1989)
Sean Connery	The Hunt for Red October (1990)
John Carpenter	In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Robin Williams	Bicentennial Man (1999)

Sam Neill Biggest Films Explained

The Piano (1993). Directed by Jane Campion, this drama won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and three Oscars. Neill played Alisdair Stewart, the settler husband of a mute pianist played by Holly Hunter. It was a quiet and difficult role, and it showed that he could play complicated characters as well as heroes. It remains one of the finest films of his career.

Jurassic Park (1993). Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur adventure made Neill a global name as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, a man who dislikes children and technology but ends up protecting two kids in a park full of dinosaurs. The film grossed about $1.1 billion worldwide against a budget of $63 million, and his scenes with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum are still among the most quoted in popular cinema.

The Hunt for Red October (1990). Neill played Captain Vasily Borodin, the loyal second-in-command of the Soviet submarine commanded by Sean Connery. The Cold War thriller grossed about $200 million and was his first big Hollywood hit.

Dead Calm (1989). In this Australian thriller Neill played a husband stuck on a yacht with his wife (Nicole Kidman) and a dangerous stranger (Billy Zane). It was a surprise hit in the United States and helped him get Hollywood offers.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). Taika Waititi’s comedy drama paired Neill with young Julian Dennison as a grumpy bushman called Hec and a rebellious foster child on the run in the New Zealand wilderness. Made for about $2.5 million, it grossed about $26 million and is considered one of the best New Zealand films ever made.

Jurassic World Dominion (2022). Neill returned as Dr. Alan Grant for the last time, reuniting with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide and gave the original cast a proper farewell, which now feels even more special.

Sam Neill Cult Classics and Underrated Films

Possession (1981). Andrzej Zulawski’s disturbing horror drama starred Neill and Isabelle Adjani and was a box office failure, but it is now one of the most admired cult films of the era.

In the Mouth of Madness (1994). John Carpenter’s horror film had Neill as an insurance investigator who loses his grip on reality. It earned about $9 million at release but is now seen as one of Carpenter’s best films.

Event Horizon (1997). This space horror film had Neill playing the scientist who designed a spaceship that returns from hell. It earned only $42 million against a $60 million budget, but its popularity has grown for decades.

Until the End of the World (1991). Wim Wenders’ ambitious road movie was a commercial failure, but critics and fans have praised it in later years, and Neill’s performance as Eugene Fitzpatrick is part of that reappraisal.

Sam Neill Career Phases at a Glance

Phase	Years	Key Films	Pattern
Early career	1977–1983	Sleeping Dogs, My Brilliant Career, Omen III	New Zealand and Australian cinema, first Hollywood role
International leading man	1985–1992	Plenty, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October	Thrillers and prestige dramas
Peak years	1993–1999	The Piano, Jurassic Park, Event Horizon	Blockbusters and award-winning films
Character actor	2000–2009	Jurassic Park III, Wimbledon, Daybreakers	Studio films and independent films
Late career	2010–2019	The Vow, Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok	Comedy, supporting roles and television
Final years	2020–2026	Rams, Jurassic World Dominion	Reunions, memoir, fight against cancer

Sam Neill Awards & Honours

Award	Category	Work	Result
Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film	Reilly, Ace of Spies	Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film	One Against the Wind	Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film	Merlin	Nominated
Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries or Movie	Merlin	Nominated
AFI Awards (now AACTA)	Best Actor	Jessica	Won
AACTA Awards	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Australian film career	Won
Logie Awards	Most Outstanding Actor	Australian television career	Won
New Zealand Film Awards	Best Actor	New Zealand film career	Won
Longford Lyell Award	Contribution to Australian screen industry	Lifetime career	Won
New Zealand Order of Merit	Knight Companion (KNZM)	Services to film	Honoured
Order of the British Empire	Officer (OBE)	Services to film	Honoured

Sam Neill Latest Performance (2022–2026)

Project	Release	Performance
Jurassic World Dominion	June 2022	Grossed about $1,002 million worldwide, his last appearance as Dr. Alan Grant
Thor: Love and Thunder	July 2022	Cameo as the actor playing Odin, film grossed about $760 million
Assassin Club	2023	Supporting role in an action thriller
Apples Never Fall	2024	Played Stan Delaney in the Peacock miniseries
Passing	13 July 2026	Died in Sydney, aged 78, after treatment at St Vincent’s Private Hospital

Sam Neill Upcoming Movies (Posthumous Releases)

Film	Status
Godzilla x Kong: Supernova	Supporting role, release set for 26 March 2027
The Legend of Zelda	Undisclosed role reported by Deadline, release set for 7 May 2027
The Last Resort	Romantic comedy with Daisy Ridley, Neill plays her father, release expected in 2027
The Fox (voice)	Surrealist comedy, release date not announced

Release dates for upcoming films may change.

A Legacy Beyond Dinosaurs: The Story Behind Sam Neill’s Filmography

The Sam Neill filmography is the story of an actor who never stayed in one box. He started in New Zealand cinema with Sleeping Dogs in 1977, travelled to Australia for My Brilliant Career, and then to Hollywood for Omen III, Dead Calm and The Hunt for Red October. In 1993 he appeared in both The Piano and Jurassic Park, two films that could not be more different, and he handled both with the same calm intelligence. He later moved comfortably between studio films like Bicentennial Man and The Vow, small independent dramas like Little Fish and Sweet Country, and television hits like Merlin, The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. His late career gave him one of his warmest roles in Hunt for the Wilderpeople and a loving farewell to Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic World Dominion. Away from the screen he ran the Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago and wrote a bestselling memoir while fighting lymphoma. His death in July 2026 was mourned by fans and fellow actors around the world, and with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, The Legend of Zelda and The Last Resort still to come, the Sam Neill filmography will have a few more chapters, and this page will be updated with every new release, budget and box office figure.

Sam Neill Filmography FAQs