Sam Neill, the 78-year-old New Zealand actor best known for his role in Jurassic Park, died on Monday after contracting pneumonia, a co-star said.Rima Te Wiata, a Kiwi actor who appeared with Neill in the 2016 comedy "Hunt for the Wilderpeople," told The New Zealand Herald that he was "a very steady, peaceful, grounded man."In an interview with the outlet, Te Wiata recounted times when Neill told the press that he wasn't afraid of death but that he'd be "annoyed" by it.Neill's death came after he said he was cancer-free in April, years after he was diagnosed with stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma.SAM NEILL REMEMBERED AS 'ONE OF THE GREATS' BY NICOLE KIDMAN, TONI COLLETTE AND MORE AFTER HIS SUDDEN DEATHSam Neill attends the 2025 AACTA Awards Presented By Foxtel Group at HOTA on Feb.7, 2025, in Gold Coast, Australia.
(Chris Hyde/Getty Images for AFI)"It really sucks actually," Te Wiata said."I think he would be like: ‘For goodness sake, I got over my cancer.
And now look, now I get pneumonia.What next?'."Neill's family announced his death on Monday via an Instagram post, saying he died while at St.
Vincent's Private Hospital in Sydney, Australia."Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life," they said."The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free."Neill, who starred as paleontologist Alan Grant opposite co-stars Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough in 1993’s "Jurassic Park," has been remembered in tributes from around the world.Dern, 59, called Neill "my beloved lifetime friend," in a social media post.From left, actors Richard Attenborough (in costume as John Hammond), Martin Ferrero (as Donald Gennaro), Sam Neill (as Alan Grant), Jeff Goldblum (as Ian Malcolm), and Laura Dern (as Ellie Sattler) in the 1993 film "Jurassic Park." (Murray Close/Moviepix/Getty Images)STEVEN SPIELBERG ADMITS HE'S BEEN CONVERTED ON UFOS, SAYS HE BELIEVES THE BELIEVERS"He sho...