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Sam Neill
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Spouse
Noriko Watanabe (I) (1989 - present)
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Trivia
One son, Tim, with Lisa Harrow, a daughter Elena with Noriko Watanabe (I), and a step-daughter Maiko.
Met wife Noriko Watanabe (I) on the set of Dead Calm (1989) where she served as a make-up artist.
He has homes in Beverly Hills, Sydney and New Zealand.
Awarded the O.B.E. for Service to Acting (1993
"Best Actor on British Television" for _"Reilly: The Ace of Spies" (1983) (mini)_ (qv), Australian Film Institute Award "Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role" for Evil Angels (aka Cry in the Dark, A (1988)).
His vineyard is in the Gibbston Valley, Otago. His wine is a Pinot Noir called Two Paddocks.
One of the original candidates for the fourth and fifth actor to portray James Bond - 007 in Living Daylights, The (1987) and GoldenEye (1995). Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan ended up as James Bond, respectively.
Montana is a recurring element in his films: in Hunt for Red October, The (1990) he wants to live in Montana; in Horse Whisperer, The (1998) he goes to Montana to find with his wife; in Jurassic Park (1993) he is digging up fossils in Montana.
Sam Neill is one of the three founders of Huntaway Films, along with his good friends John Clarke and Jay Cassells
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
This Irishborn actor, raised in New Zealand, broke into Australian films just around the time that country's movie industry was going into its renaissance, and he impressed theatergoers as a virile yet sensitive leading man. Neill made his debut in Ashes (1975), but first attracted attention as the male lead in Gillian Armstrong's turn-ofthe-century drama, My Brilliant Career (1979). Since then he has alternated between Australian-made movies and international productions, flirting with stardom at several junctures. He supported Meryl Streep in Fred Schepisi's production of Plenty (1985), then costarred with her in the same director's A Cry in the Dark (1988), the harrowing tale of an Australian couple accused of murdering their own child; in the rush to praise Streep's brilliant work, Neill's equally compelling and controlled performance as her agonized husband was somewhat taken for granted. The truth is, he's always good. He's had prominent showcases on American TV in the high-profile miniseries "Kane and Abel" (1985) and "Amerika" (1987) and the telefilm One Against the Wind (1991, opposite Judy Davis), and costarring roles in such mainstream movies as Dead Calm (1989) and The Hunt for Red October (1990), but nothing could top his parlay in 1993, starring in the biggest hit movie of all time, Jurassic Park and the critical hit of the year, Jane Campion's The Piano as Holly Hunter's sexually repressed husband. If Neill is still not quite "star material," there is no question of his status among the best, and most versatile, actors working today. |  |
