Jurassic Park, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and more: Sam Neill’s most memorable screen performances

Sam Neill was a prolific talent who loved to work, so as his friends, colleagues and fans mourn the industry talent, there is small comfort in the performances he left behind.

Neill died at the age 78 in Sydney yesterday, his family announced in a statement, and since then, tributes have poured in from around the world.

He was remembered for his generous spirit and down-to-earth nature, but also for his body of work which spanned genres, characters and continents thanks to his versatility.

He had more than 100 credits during his more than 50 years on screen, but these were some of his most memorable projects.

MY BRILLIANT CAREER (1979)

Neill wasn’t a total newbie when he starred in My Brilliant Career but this was undoubtedly his break-out role.

As Harry, one of headstrong Sybylla’s suitors, Neill was a mix of rugged handsome, coy playfulness and dashing. Most importantly, he made you root for Harry as someone that Sybylla really should marry, even though the heart of the story is her choice to be independent.

As one of the defining films of the Australian New Wave, based off Miles Franklin’s iconic novel, My Brilliant Career launched Neill, Judy Davis and filmmaker Gillian Armstrong on to the world stage.

Watch: Netflix

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE (2016)

Taika Waititi’s fourth feature doesn’t work without Neill’s performance alongside breakout youngster Julian Dennison.

It’s their chemistry that made this Kiwi film such a critical and commercial success, as the begrudging Uncle Hec and the troublemaker Ricky Baker. Both outsiders on the run from the New Zealand authorities (Rachel House as a determined, no-nonsense welfare officer), it’s their rebel status that ultimately bonds them.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and is still remembered for its wry humour and warmth.

Watch: SBS on Demand

JURASSIC PARK (1993)

A big dinosaur movie could’ve been really goofy if a different group of people were in charge. But with Steven Spielberg at the helm andNeill leading an ensemble which included Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, it became an iconic 1990s blockbuster full of thrills.

Neill’s palaeontologist character, Alan Grant, took his job seriously but was still a crackling screen presence as he first expressed surprise and curiosity at the existence of dinosaurs, then as they had to flee the predators.

You can’t imagine what Jurassic Park would’ve been like without Neill’s gravitas, because as Spielberg said today, the actor was “exceptionally collaborative”.

Watch: Netflix, Prime, Paramount+, Binge

THE PIANO (1993)

Working with fellow New Zealander Jane Campion, Neill took on the role of the villain of The Piano.

But even as a character consumed by jealousy, resentment and rage, there’s a complexity to his performance that makes Alisdair, a man who arranged for his marriage to Holly Hunter’s Ada, someone who could engender pity.

With its gothic vibes and sensuality, The Piano won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, which made Campion the first woman to do that.

Watch: Digital rental

THE DISH (2000)

Neill spent most of the 1990s starring in big Hollywood productions, but it was in The Dish where he looked like he was having the most fun, paling around with a local cast and crew, part of a team of underdogs.

The comedy, from the Working Dog gang, is based on the true story of the significant role played by the Parkes Observatory in helping to broadcast man’s first steps on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

Watch: HBO Max, Stan

THE TUDORS (2007 – 2010)

This series about English monarch Henry VIII has all the high dramas of an powerful and insecure ruler who is most remembered for how he cycled through his six wives – and the world-changing ramifications of breaking away from the Catholic Church because he was desperate for a divorce.

The later seasons are a bit whiffy, but there is no denying that first season made for absolutely delicious television thanks to its hot young cast including Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry Cavill and Natalie Dormer.

But a lot of it also has to do with Neill’s performance as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey was an adviser to Henry and a master political strategist who was as shrewd in enriching his own fortunes as he was in plotting his king’s.

He’s not exactly a sympathetic figure but as the clergyman fails to achieve what Henry wants, he starts to flounder and in Neill’s hands, he becomes a fallen figure you actually feel sorry for.

Watch: Stan

DEAD CALM (1989)

Orson Welles for years tried to mount his own version of Dead Calm, based on Charles William’s book, but nothing ever came of it. It was Phillip Noyce who eventually succeeded in bringing this classic thriller to screen.

The bolts of the story is a real potboiler – a married couple grieving the death of their son decide to take time away by sailing on their yacht when they come upon a stranded stranger who turns out to be a real threat.

Dead Calm is often thought of as a showcase for an early career Nicole Kidman, but Neill as her husband is also a formidable force.

Watch: ABC iview, HBO Max

SWEET COUNTRY (2017)

Neill worked with many Australian filmmakers, and we are all the more fortunate that he was able to team up with one of the most exciting talents of the local industry: Warwick Thornton.

This 2018 historical western is set in the Northern Territory in the 1920s, and explores the frontier conflict of white man’s justice versus natural justice. The story is centred on Hamilton Morris’s Sam Kelly, a First Nations stockman who shoots an abusive white war veteran in self-defence.

It’s a gritty, honest portrayal of the colonial era and its many grey areas, and Neill plays an essentially kind and decent grazier and preacher, a rare character in this harsh land.

Watch: ABC iview, Beama

MERLIN (1998)

Merlin is a quirk of that era of American TV when there used to be these big-budget event miniseries set over two nights. Neill scored an Emmy nomination for his performance as the titular wizard, one of the show’s 15 nods.

It was unusual to focus the Arthurian legends on not the king of legend (Arthur is an unmemorable figure here, played by an actor who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page) but on his famous wizard adviser, someone who was either involved or observed most of the significant moments in these stories.

The Neill magic here is that his Merlin is almost a tragic figure as someone who sacrificed his own desires (with Isabella Rossellini’s Nimue) to serve the fates. This splashy cast also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Martin Short, Miranda Richardson and John Gielgud.

Watch: DVDs available on eBay

THE TWELVE (2022 – 2025)

Australian series The Twelve is structured as a legal procedural – every season involves a different courtroom case, a potential miscarriage of justice, and 12 jurors whose personal lives will ultimately have an effect on the verdict.

But the thread between each of its three seasons is Sam Neill as defence barrister Brett Colby. His performance has a solemnity and humanity, as a champion of his client but also as someone deeply interested in the truth.

In the third season, the case becomes more personal as the accused is connected to Brett’s past.

Watch: Binge

DEATH IN BRUNSWICK (1990)

Who hasn’t accidentally killed their drug-dealing co-worker because they mistakenly thought you’d ratted them out to some gangsters, and then tried to cover up the crime by recruiting your grave-digging mate to hide the body in an open burial plot? No? Not you?

That’s the general gist of Death in Brunswick, an Australian black comedy in which Neill plays a young chef whose forbidden love of a barmaid kicks off those deadly hijinks. Wild times.

Watch: ABC iview, SBS on Demand, Beama, Prime