Sam Neill - Not Just a Vintner Quiz

Answer: Omagh, Northern Ireland

His mother, Priscilla Beatrice Ingham, was English. His father, Dermot Neill, was a New Zealander (whose grandfather had emigrated from Ireland in the 19th century) stationed in Northern Ireland as an officer in the Royal Irish Fusiliers. This means Sam Neill was born eligible for three citizenships: British, Irish and New Zealand.

The family moved to Christchurch when he was seven, and as an adult he has always identified himself as a New Zealander.

Answer: Nigel

He was born Nigel John Dermot Neill, but decided as a schoolboy that Nigel was not going to work. Some sources say it was because the name was too common, others that it was too uncommon and stood out in the Christchurch boarding schools he attended after his family moved to Dunedin. His own recollection (in an interview with Andrew Denton in 2004) that he was a shy child with a stutter that made him uncomfortable when called on to speak makes the latter more likely.

He attended the University of Canterbury, having decided not to follow his father into either a military career or the family business. It was there that he discovered acting, appearing in several productions with the Canterbury University Drama Society, including the exciting experience of being directed by Dame Ngaio Marsh in a 1969 production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in which he played Theseus, the Duke of Athens who is about to be married.

Answer: Victorian University of Wellington

The incorrect options are all fine schools offering degrees in the performing arts, but they are in the US. Sam didn't travel that far! One of the plays in which he performed in 1969 was a production of Peter Weiss' play 'The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade' (usually shortened to 'Marat/Sade', for obvious reasons). Over the summer, the production moved to Wellington, and Neill had the chance to move with it - and take on the role of the firebrand former priest Jacques Roux.

Finding the Wellington performing arts scene significantly more vibrant and energetic than that of Christchurch, he transferred universities in order to complete his degree and get his foot in the world of professional acting. At the time, there was virtually no commercial film industry in New Zealand, so his first credited work was in television. He played an unnamed neighbour in the 1971 television film 'The City of No', then made several short documentary films - including 'Telephone Etiquette', which he wrote and directed. He continued performing Shakespeare on the stage, and waited for something to happen. (He has often described his career as having happened by chance, which modestly understates the hard work he put in to hone his performance skills.) According to his memoir, at this time he was getting a salary of $25 a week, plus being allowed to help himself to the food left over from what was offered to the audience before each show.

Answer: The Sullivans

These were all popular and long-running Australian shows, but the three incorrect ones had not yet started their runs. 'A Country Practice' debuted in 1981, 'Neighbours' in 1985 and 'Home and Away' in 1988. 'The Sullivans' aired from 1976 until 1983, following the lives of a suburban Melbourne family during and immediately after World War II. Sam Neill played Ben Dawson, a character about whom I have been unable to unearth any further information.

The most significant step forward in his career at this time playing Harry Beecham in Gillian Anderon's 1979 film 'My Brilliant Career'. Harry was one of the two men pursuing Sybylla (Judy Davis in her first lead role). This film brought all involved onto the international stage, and Sam Neill's career really began to take off. Several Australian films later, he landed the role of Damien Thorn in 'The Final Conflict', and he became a name to be reckoned with in world film.

Answer: Ivanhoe

This adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's novel starred Anthony Andrews as Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, an Anglo-Saxon knight returning from the Crusades, and Sam Neill as the Norman knight (and general baddie) Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert. This adaptation makes de Bois-Guilbert less villainous than many versions, seeming to care genuinely for Rebecca despite everything. (You will have to go read the novel to get details of the complex plot!)

The telefilm has been broadcast on New Year's day every year since it first appeared in 1982, so Sam Neill became a household name there at a time when his career was expanding into new territory, primarily on the small screen. In 1983 he won a Golden Globe for the miniseries 'Reilly, Ace of Spies', and in 1987 he played a KGB officer in the American miniseries 'Amerika' .

Playing the lead character's father in the Filipino romantic comedy 'The Last Resort' may be Sam Neill's final film appearance. Filming was completed in May, 2025; release is planned (as of the time this quiz was written) for 2027.

Answer: Dr Alan Grant in 'Jurassic Park'

'Jurassic Park' may be the film that made Sam Neill a superstar, and Dr Alan Grant the only role he ever repeated in sequel performances, it did not garner him any award nominations. In 1988 he won an award as Best Actor in a Leading Role from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) for his portrayal of Michael Chamberlain in 'Evil Angels' (retitled 'A Cry in the Dark' outside Australia and New Zealand). Meryl Streep played Lindy Chamberlain in this film about the death of their daughter Azaria. The Chamberlains were originally convicted of killing her, but this was later overturned - and they were exonerated only a few months before the film was released.

Sam Neill was nominated for a number of other awards during his career, including 6 more AACTA awards, three Golden Globes and two Primetime Emmies.

Answer: pinot noir

These are the four most widely-produced wine style in New Zealand, with the Otago region specialising in pinot noir. Sam Neill often discussed the joy he gets from Two Paddocks, including numerous tweets and You Tube posts such as the one that appeared in an online tribute shortly after his death in which he urged everyone who wasn't feeling happy to cuddle a duck.

He has a number of animals on the farm, and named them after his friends and acting colleagues. He explained this in a 2016 interview on 'The Graham Norton show': "If you name a chicken Meryl Streep ... you cannot eat Meryl Streep.' On that same show, he described some of the confusing statements that can result from this, as a picture of several cows was displayed. He identified a large one as Helena Bonham-Carter, and a small one near her as Graham Norton. "Helena Bonham-Carter is Graham Norton's mother, and James Nesbitt is the father." Two kekune pigs named Angelica Huston and Bryan Brown have also received media attention.

Describing the role of the farm in his life, Sam Neill regularly made it clear that it provided a grounding break from the world of film. In a 2022 interview with 'Country Life', asked if he would like to retire from acting and devote all his time to farming, he said that having both of them in his life provided a good balance: "One offsets the other, one kind of mitigates the other, one enhances the other".

Answer: 2022

In 1991 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM). These were both British honours - remember that English citizenship, and the fact that New Zealand is part of the British commonwealth? In 1975 New Zealand started to introduce their own system of honours to recognize their citizens' achievements, with no knights or dames included. In 2009 NEw Zealand revised things, and decreed that anyone who held a DCNZM was automatically entitled to convert it to a New Zealand knighthood. At the time, Sam Neill declined to do so; as he has said many times, he just didn't feel comfortable with the title, as it seemed rather too grand and pompous.

However, a diagnosis of lymphoma in 2022 made him reconsider, in the face of his mortality, and he decided to take up the offer, becoming a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM). His official title became Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill KNZM OBE.

Answer: Did I Ever Tell You This?

2022 was a time when Sam Neill engaged in some serious introspection and retrospection in the wake of being diagnosed with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. 'Did I Ever Tell You This?' is essentially a collection of anecdotes covering his life, both personal and professional.

It's laid-back tone, and gentle humour, reflect the personality described by his many friends after his death - you can read the tributes online. As well as revealing his own character, his observations of his friends show readers the private side of a number of celebrities.

Answer: pneumonia

While he had been undergoing treatment for lymphoma since 2022, in April 2026 he announced that chemotherapy was no longer effective, and he was participating in a clinical trial which involved a process called CAR T-cell therapy. CAR T cells are proteins that can detect and target the specific antigens of the patient's cancer more efficiently than normal T cells. (Sorry, that's all the biology for now, as explaining all these terms and processes would rapidly turn this paragraph into a monograph.) At the time of his death, his family said that he was cancer-free, but the bodily stress of treatment had reduced his capacity to fight an invasive pneumonia.

Sam Neill's ashes were scattered over the ground at Two Paddocks.