Sam Neill Movies and TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer
Veteran actor Sam Neill has passed away at 78.
In another lifetime, Sam Neill might have become a lawyer in New Zealand, and the world would have never known the talents of one of the finest actors of his generation. Luckily for us, our Sam Neill failed all four of his units during the first year of law school, and we were gifted with iconic performances in Jurassic Park, Event Horizon, The Tudors, and Peaky Blinders, among many others.
Born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, Neill cut his dramatic teeth on the theater stages of Wellington before working for the New Zealand National Film Unit and landing a few TV movies during the early 1970s. His breakthrough came in the form of Roger Donaldson’s 1977 thriller Sleeping Dogs, in which he starred as a man whose idyllic island life is upended when he is accused of leading the resistance in a civil war.
Two years later, he starred opposite Judy Davis in Gillian Armstrong’s period drama My Brilliant Career, and two years after that, he starred in Omen III: The Final Conflict and Possession, the first of several horror titles on his resume that would turn him into a genre icon. His chilling delivery of the line “Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes to see” in Event Horizon is one of the reasons the film endures as a cult classic.
Across more than five decades, Neill moved seamlessly between big-budget blockbusters and small indie dramas. The same year he led the way in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, for example, he also gave arguably his greatest dramatic performance in Jane Campion’s The Piano. He did similarly memorable work in films like The Hunt for Red October, Dead Calm, In the Mouth of Madness, The Horse Whisperer, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. As a testament to his versatility, two of his final roles, currently in post-production, are the Philippines-set romantic comedy The Last Resort and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
On television, he brought weight to his leading roles and elevated projects in his supporting turns, appearing in everything from prestige dramas to animated comedies. His early work as the titular character on UK drama Reilly, Ace of Spies earned him a Golden Globe nomination, while the 1998 miniseries Merlin got him both Golden Globe and Emmy nods. He helped anchor series like Alcatraz, Invasion, and Apples Never Fall, all while making time to do guest voice work for shows like The Simpsons and Rick and Morty.
On July 13, 2026, Neill’s official Instagram account shared a post announcing that the esteemed actor had died at the age of 78. Neill had been battling stage 3 lymphoma since 2022, announcing in April of 2026 that he was cancer free, and the July post noted that his death “was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.” The post also reassured fans that “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.” To celebrate his life, we look back at all of Sam Neill’s films ranked by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films listed first.
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