‘Just a local’: rural New Zealand fondly remembers Sam Neill, its everyday star

Sam Neill raised money for the community cinema and traded banter in the local cafe, so to residents of the small towns near where he lived, the actor fitted right in

He may have been New Zealand’s most famous, internationally beloved, film star, but to the small South Island communities near where he lived, Sam Neill was “just a local”.

“There was no aspect of him that was: ‘Hey I’m Sam Neill and I’m walking down the main street,’” says Russell Garbut, who resides in Clyde, one of two tiny townships in central Otago that the actor frequented.
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