'Jurassic Park' Star Sam Neill Says Cancer Remission Is Likely Temporary

Sam Neill, the actor best known for his role as Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park franchise, is opening up about his stage-three blood cancer battle. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Australian Story, the 76-year-old revealed that he has been in remission for 12 months after doctors put him on a rare anti-cancer drug that, according to Neill and his doctors, will eventually stop working.

Neill, who revealed in May 2023 that he was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, said that after his initial chemotherapy treatments stopped working after just three months, doctors switched him to the anti-cancer drug. The drug requires the actor to go in for infusions every two weeks, which Neill described as "going 10 rounds with a boxer," and described the few days after treatment as "very grim and depressing." However, Neill said the treatments "keeping me alive, and being alive is infinitely preferable to the alternative." Neill revealed that he has been cancer-free for 12 months now, but he shared that the treatment will eventually stop working.

"I'm prepared for that," he said. "I'm not, in any way, frightened of dying. It's never worried me from the beginning. But I would be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I'm not afraid of it."

The actor's haematologist, Dr. Orly Lavee, told Australian Story that "we may need to think about a third line option" once the treatment does stop working, Lavee added, "That's a difficult thing to carry around, day in, day out, waiting for that to happen."

Neill first shared his cancer diagnosis in an interview with The Guardian in March. In his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, he explained that he experienced swollen glands during publicity for Jurassic World Dominion in 2022 and was then diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare and often aggressive form of peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

Although Neill is still battling cancer, he hasn't let it impact his acting career. He told Australian Story that "the idea of retirement fills me with horror, actually. To not be able to do the things that you love would be heartbreaking." The actor began his career in Australia and New Zealand during the late 1970s, becoming an international star as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. He played the part again in Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion. His other credits include Peaky Blinders, The Tudors, and the Omen franchise.