New Zealand actor Sir Sam Neill has died in Sydney, aged 78.

His family confirmed his death in a statement posted to his official social media accounts on Monday evening.

“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” the statement said.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.”

The family said the loss was sudden and unexpected, and that Neill had remained cancer free. They thanked staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their care and asked for privacy.

Neill announced in April he was cancer free after taking part in an Australian clinical trial, following a five-year battle with a rare form of blood cancer diagnosed at stage three in 2022.

Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1947, he moved to Christchurch with his family in 1954, settling in Cashmere.

He attended Cashmere Primary School, Medbury School and later Christ’s College, before studying at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters in 2002.

He first came to attention in the 1977 New Zealand film Sleeping Dogs, before international roles in My Brilliant Career, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Dead Calm and The Hunt for Red October.

His global breakthrough came in 1993, starring as Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and as Alisdair Stewart in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning film The Piano. He reprised the role of Grant in Jurassic Park III and 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion.

He remained closely connected to New Zealand film, starring in Hunt for the Wilderpeople in 2016 and writing and directing the 1995 documentary Cinema of Unease. He also owned the Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago, established in 1993.

Neill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1991 and accepted redesignation as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2022, having earlier declined a knighthood as “just far too grand”.

He published his memoir Did I Ever Tell You This? in 2023.