Sam Neill 1947 – 2026

People ask me: which was your worst celebrity interview ever? I always reply without hesitation: Sam Neill.

Born in Ireland and raised in New Zealand, the Golden Globe and Emmy nominated actor passed away July 13 at 78. He had shared on social media recently that tests showed he had licked a rare blood lymphoma. His death therefore was “sudden and unexpected” according to his family.

I interviewed Mr. Neill on a few occasions over the years, but it was our first encounter that did not go well. Back in the mid-’80s when I had just started working in Los Angeles for TV Guide Canada I was asked to drive over to Beverly Hills and interview Neill at the offices of publicist Barry Stagg. The editors back home wanted me to quiz Neill about the historical miniseries he had just shot in Canada titled, “The Blood of Others.” Jodi Foster, Michael Ontkean and Kate Reid are also listed in the credits, but this mini later cut down into a movie seems buried in the HBO vaults.

As a green-as-grass photo editor at the time with very little writing experience, I did not know enough to say, “Uh, shouldn’t I see the movie first?” You couldn’t “Google” anybody back then, or watch even a trailer on YouTube, so getting directions to the interview was about as much research as I did on this occasion.

This was years before Neill became a major movie star as part of the wildly popular Jurassic Park movie franchise. When I arrived I learned that I would be the last of a dozen or so journalists to interview him that day. It was immediately obvious that he was out of gas and not there to conduct a reporter training lesson.

I asked him if period pieces were a special attraction. Not really, he replied. I informed him I was from Toronto, where the miniseries was shot, and asked if he enjoyed working in the city. It was okay, he said.

This went on for what seemed like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes. Finally I asked Neill what he wanted to talk about.

“Whales,” he said. Long pause. Did he mean Ireland, Scotland, Wales, I asked. No, whales. Big, swim-in-the-ocean whales.

Neill was into whales. This did not help me at all. TV Guide tended not to run stories about whales.

After a few more torturous minutes, I suggested it was late, thanked him for his time, and left in defeat. I called the office in Toronto and confessed I had nothing. The message was not well received.

Today I would write what you just read, above. Or at least ask Neill all about whales. We would likely have ridden one back to the project he clearly had little interest in promoting.

I wish back then that I had the poise and curiosity of the young woman on The Assembly Australia who stopped Neill cold with a simple question: “What is the best lesson you learned from your parents?” If you haven’t seen it already, and it went viral about a year ago, you can watch that remarkable clip here.

I’ve told my bad interview with Sam Neill story to a few other journalists over the years and they all react the same way–not Sam Neill. He’s always been great with me, they say. They unanimously concluded it had to be my fault. They were one hundred per cent right.

Twenty five years later, in 2010, Neill was nothing but friendly in the scrum following a Television Critics Association ABC press tour session for a short-lived series named Happy Town. Sarah Gadon and Peter Outerbridge were among the Canadians in the cast.

Neill said he loved shooting on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Set in Minnesota, much of Happy Town was shot in Port Hope, Ontario. Neill and the other actors were driven about an hour each day to Port Hope from downtown Toronto. Then 62, Neill told me that he cooked and hosted several meals for the cast because apparently he had the largest apartment. “We had a big cast, most of us were away from home,” he says. “It’s good to have a home meal and have a few laughs.”

A few years later I shared that story with Gadon. “He was so friendly, and an amazing cook!” she said.

On that project, Neill played an eccentric outsider and movie buff who ran a local collectibles shop. He lives in a boarding house with seven widows who all adore him. “That was one of the things I really loved about it when I first read it,” he said. “All these old widows like twittering birds just head over heels in love with this old geezer.” 

The well traveled actor was just back from shooting The Last Dragon with Samuel L. Jackson in China and was finding himself cast more and more in children’s movies. “When you do kids films, you either play the dad or the villain or, increasingly in my case, the grandfather.”

Neill was his usual droll self when I was with a group of reporters who spoke with him in Vancouver on the set of the Fox series Alcatraz. Produced by J.J. Abrams, the 2012 series was produced at the same North Shore studios where The X Files once squatted. Follow this link to a short clip I shot at the time; Neill, who worked a fair bit in Canada, shows a little of his “playfulness” in answering a question from colleague Rob Salem. Otherwise, he was relaxed, bemused, and very good natured. He did everything but cook for us.

After the session, I apologized for wasting his time all those years ago. He just laughed it off and insisted he had no memory whatsoever of the incident. He was a very good actor.

And he did school this reporter, in a very helpful way. The lesson: always be prepared or at least be prepared to say no. Contrary to the old saying, it is not mainly about just showing up. Rest in Peace, Sam Neill.