RIP Sam Neill

The week was a wild one for Texas in July. For starters, the temperature never once reached ninety degrees. Heck, most of the week was spent in the seventies. We expect to be roasting this time of year, but instead it felt more like October. On top of the cooler temperatures, we also had rain aplenty. On Tuesday, the rain came down so quickly and fiercely that the roads flooded in no time. Right at five o’clock, I might add. Of course it did. Trying to get home through a rushing torrent ripped the engine splash shield almost completely off the underside of my car. A real bummer. Not that it’s really needed.

It’s amazing what this kind of weather does to people in Texas when it’s usually so damn hot. Everyone seems to be in a better mood, and the extra rainfall brings a sense of giddiness to many of us Texans who are accustomed to drought. Rain throughout the week isn’t very common this time of year, at least not around here. I don’t want flooding, but I’ll gladly take full reservoirs. I know I had a good attitude all week—even with a splash shield dragging underneath my car.

The week also included the semifinals of the World Cup. Spain beat France on Tuesday, and Argentina defeated England on Wednesday. Both games took place while I was at work, but on Wednesday our Multicultural Center was unofficially hosting a World Cup watch party. I took a break with a couple of university employees and watched part of the match. I was the lone Argentina fan, which made it all the sweeter when they won. I allowed myself a brief moment of gloating.

I couldn’t believe the World Cup was already nearing its end. A month ago, it had only just begun.

I was also powering my way through House of the Dragon. I finished the second season, leaving only three episodes before I was all caught up with Teegan. I was enjoying the show immensely and was thankful he convinced me to watch something I had initially dismissed. My reasons for overlooking it were completely unfounded. It has been a fantastic experience, and I’m looking forward to finally being caught up so we can watch the new episodes together.

This isn’t to say the week was all roses. Monday morning brought news I wasn’t remotely prepared for.

The week began with a death blow I wasn’t expecting—the death of Sam Neill.

He was one of my all-time favorite actors and, honestly, one of my favorite celebrities in general. Everything I’ve ever read or seen suggested he was a genuinely good man. I hated waking up to that news. At first, I couldn’t believe it. I had only recently seen him post on Instagram. I immediately had to fact-check the story. This couldn’t have happened.

But alas, it had.

The man had been part of my life since I was twelve years old, when he first appeared as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. His passing really threw me for a loop. I didn’t realize until he died just how much I’d subconsciously viewed him as a movie father figure. He brought such warmth to Dr. Grant that he became exactly that. His death doesn’t simply feel like losing a celebrity I admired—it feels a little like losing a member of the family, even though we never met.

This one hit harder than almost any other celebrity death. Rest in peace to an absolute legend.

He starred in three of my favorite films.

Jurassic Park might very well be my favorite movie of all time. It was a foundational film for me as a kid. I still remember sitting in the theater with my family, completely awestruck when the credits rolled. It wasn’t just the dinosaurs that captured my imagination. Neill’s portrayal of Dr. Grant made digging for dinosaur bones seem as cool as Indiana Jones made archaeology. He was the dinosaur guy. After seeing that movie, I wanted to become a paleontologist. I hadn’t seen many of Neill’s other films at the time, but after Jurassic Park, if Sam Neill starred in it, I wanted to watch it.

The other two films of his that rank among my favorites are the horror classics In the Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon. He absolutely nails both performances.

By the end of Event Horizon, he’s utterly terrifying. “Where we’re going, we don’t need eyes to see…” This is the same man who played the warm, fatherly Dr. Grant. He can’t be the villain—he’s Sam Neill. He’s everyone’s lovable guy. Then suddenly he’s scarred, eyeless, and trying to drag people into Hell. It’s incredible. What range.

In the Mouth of Madness is another phenomenal film. Few actors spent as much time confronting Lovecraftian horrors throughout their careers, and even fewer could portray a slow descent into madness as convincingly as Neill. As John Trent, he gradually loses his grip on reality. By the film’s end, he’s completely unraveled. The performance is absolutely batshit—in the best possible way. He begins the movie full of confidence, and by the end that confidence has completely collapsed into chaos. He sells every second of it.

Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre.

One of my more recent viewings of his work was Possession, a film released in 1981—the same year I was born. Horror fans talked about this movie for years, but unless you owned an old VHS copy, you simply weren’t going to see it. It wasn’t streaming anywhere, and it had never been properly released on DVD or Blu-ray. It eluded me for years before I finally found a terrible-quality upload on YouTube.

Watching it felt like discovering something forbidden. Something almost mythical. A hidden treasure for horror fans—and especially for Sam Neill fans.

His performance absolutely knocked my socks off. It remains the most powerful performance of his I’ve ever seen. He navigates such an incredible range of emotions that it’s almost overwhelming to watch. That film is art—intoxicating, mesmerizing, excruciating, and emotionally brutal in the most believable way possible. Finding Possession felt like discovering the Holy Grail of horror films. Having been a Sam Neill fan for over thirty-three years, I was shocked that such an extraordinary performance wasn’t discussed more often whenever people talked about his career.

Thankfully, the film was eventually released to a much wider audience.

Those are only a handful of the many films in which he gave memorable performances. He reprised his role as Dr. Grant in two Jurassic Park sequels and also gave memorable performances in The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Daybreakers, The Hunter, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Luckily for me, he left behind an extensive filmography that I have yet to explore. When I have the time, I plan to start catching up, beginning with The Omen: Final Conflict.

During COVID, Neill developed quite a presence on Instagram. For me—and for countless others—he became a bright spot during some very dark days. I looked forward to his videos about life on his winery, the animals on his farm, and the quiet joy he seemed to find in everyday moments. That warmth continued right up until shortly before his passing.

For those of us who followed him, it genuinely felt like we knew those animals. We celebrated them and mourned them when one passed away. That’s how gifted Sam Neill was. He invited people into his life with warmth, humor, and kindness. You couldn’t help but feel connected to him. To be honest, in the later years of his life, I came to know him more through his online presence than through his acting credits. That’s a testament to the kind of person he was.

His death stayed on my mind all week, and it still doesn’t quite feel real. Thirty-three years after first watching him play Dr. Grant, he’d become something like a familiar uncle in my mind. The world simply felt like a better place with Sam Neill in it.

His presence will be deeply missed.

Rest in peace, Sam Neill.

Jalapeño

Beef Bulgolgi & kimchi.