Monday brings sad news that New Zealand actor Sam Neill has passed away at the age of 78.
Neill is better known for his role as palaeontologist Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park movie franchise, but for military aficionados, Sam will always be remembered for his portrayal as the Montana-loving Vasily Borodin, second officer to Sean Connery’s Captain Marko Ramius, in the classic 1990 movie adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October. "Borodin" longed to own a recreation vehicle (RV) once the sub took him to America. On an intelligence bent Neill also played Sidney Reilly in Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983).
Rest in Peace, Sam Neill!
Pete Comment
OH NO!! Neill was born a New Zealander. But he crossed the ditch (Tasman Sea) to "the Big Smoke" for New Zealanders, known as Australia. As his fame grew he was dubbed Australian. He also owned the Two Paddocks winery near Queenstown NZ. I never did visit that winery :(
7 comments:
That's sad. Sam only living to 78. It seems he died of cancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Neill#Health_and_death
Thanks Shawn
For locating Sam' Neill's (Borodin's) "recreational vehicle" quip in the Hunt for the Red October fragment video above. at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8JW75Lv25k
Sam played so many different characters during his career including a Welsh Spaniel who reincarnates as Dean Spanley (a senior churchman in Edwardian England). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Spanley
See the Official Trailor where Sam plays opposite an aging Peter O'Toole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1q-NtjN4eQ
Regards Pete
Thanks Pete. A sad loss. Sam Neil was a great actor, who retained his modesty even after achieving world wide success. The sort of person we all aspire to be.
This is sad news. Pretty much everyone in the world has seen the original Jurassic Park trilogy, though I most fondly remember him as Dr. William Wier from Event Horizon.
lol,
I saw Event Horizon on a date, as we were both big Sci Fi and Sam Neil fans. We were shocked to discover it was a horror movie!
This was in the mid-90s, before online movie trailers and reviews.
Thanks for the warning Shawn
I've never watched "Event Horizon". After reading the following you'll see why I still won't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_(film)#Critical_response :
"On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Event Horizon holds an approval rating of 36% based on 96 reviews and an average rating of 5.4/10. Its consensus reads, "Despite a strong opening that promises sci-fi thrills, Event Horizon quickly devolves into an exercise of style over substance whose flashy effects and gratuitous gore fail to mask its overreliance on horror clichés."[35] ...Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale.[37]"
I prefer to remember Sam in "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_for_the_Wilderpeople#Critical_response :
"On Rotten Tomatoes, Hunt for the Wilderpeople received a score of 97%, based on 201 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The charmingly offbeat Hunt for the Wilderpeople unites a solid cast, a talented filmmaker, and a poignant, funny, deeply affecting message."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[20]
In his review, Hamish Popplestone remarked: "Though both flawed, Neill's and Dennison's characters are so, so charming on-screen and are fully apt at weaving through the dramatic, comedic, and sad points of the script."[21] Empire magazine named Hunt for the Wilderpeople the number one film for 2016."
Cheers Pete
Hi Shawn,
I hope you liked it :) I came to know about Event Horizon through a Google search sometime in the early 2010s when I had just finished playing a video game called 'Dead Space' and wanted to find movies that had a similar theme/tone. I wasn't disappointed when I found this as a result, and was pleasantly surprised that Dr. Alan Grant and Morpheus were both in it!
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