Sam Neill's Cancer Journey

Sam Neill is a New Zealand actor best known for his role as Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park movies. In 2023, Neill revealed that he had been diagnosed with blood cancer in March 2022 and had been undergoing treatment since then. Today, he is officially cancer-free.

In March 2022, Neill was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, specifically stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL). AITL is a rare type of blood cancer, accounting for approximately 1–2% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases. It has a poor prognosis, with an estimated five-year relative survival rate of 44%.

Neill shared that he first noticed symptoms while he was working on Jurassic World Dominion. At that time, he “noticed the glands seemed to be up in my neck region, but gave it very little thought”. Moreover, his doctors had “assured me that my lumpy glands were due to undetected COVID, and they'd be hanging around for a little while”. However, his glands continued to grow bigger, which eventually prompted him to go to the hospital for additional tests.

After undergoing a PET scan, he discovered that he had blood cancer. "Within a few days I was lying on a hospital bed having all kinds of chemicals draining into my system, killing everything aboard," he wrote in his memoir, “Did I Ever Tell You This?”.

Neill underwent several rounds of chemotherapy over three months, which he described as “pretty miserable business but it was keeping me alive”. However, his treatment stopped working and his cancer continued to grow.

“The chemo stopped working. I was at a loss, and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously,” Neill recalled.

Neill added that he only had one option left — CAR T-cell therapy. CAR T-cell therapy is a personalized form of immunotherapy that genetically engineers a patient's T cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells. This involved him having bi-weekly infusions. Fortunately, it was effective, and he has been in remission since completing the treatment cycle.

In a recent interview with 7NEWS, Neill shared, “I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing.”

Neill shared that his experience with cancer made him “immensely grateful” for his life and it prompted him to open up about his story. He shared, "I started to think I better write some of this down because I'm not sure how long I have to live.”

Besides sharing his story and raising awareness about the disease, Neill is also fighting to ensure that Australians have access to this treatment. Along with Geoff Nyssen, a fellow survivor who received CAR T-cell therapy as well, Neill is fighting for the Australian state and federal governments to fund the treatment for blood cancer patients, with the help of medical foundation Snowdome.

“I’m very, very excited that this can happen,” Neill shared.

On July 13, 2026, Neil passed away at the age of 78. While the cause of death was not revealed, his family shared that that his death was “sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”

Australian journalist, Laura Tingle, who was also Neil's ex, shared that the countless treatments that Neil had likely took a toll on his body.

“He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy and, thankfully, it had finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he’d had, but it left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system and I think his poor body sort of got a bit exhausted, as makes sense,” she shared. “So, he’s been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks and everybody who loved him has been willing him on, from near and far. But, I think it was just a bit too much to recover from one more time.”

Following his death, fans and celebrities paid tribute to Neil, remembering him for far more than his acclaimed acting career. His co-star, Laura Dern, who played Ellie Sattler with him in the original Jurassic Park movies, shared, “Sam was my beloved lifetime friend. He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit. He was a true and noble gentleman, wrapped up in my dream leading man. I will love you forever, Dr. Alan Grant.”