Sam Neill was a warm, wry and unselfish star who twinkled so others could shine | Peter Bradshaw

His unshowy gifts, which discreetly carried arthouse drama and blockbuster adventures alike, never sucked a movie’s oxygen in to his own performance

‘I’d like to think that, in life, I’m a goodie’: Sam Neill’s final interview

His 20 best performances

A life in pictures

Obituary

Neill interviewed in 2023, 2024 and 2026

Sam Neill was the leading man’s leading man who achieved something no other actor could: he was charismatic and self-effacing at the same time.

He could play handsome and good-humoured or devilishly sinister, often the husband and paterfamilias, perennially in some unspecified state of early middle age, sometimes in a period colonial setting, but the movie’s oxygen was never sucked away into his own unselfishly excellent performance.
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