Rima Te Wiata, who starred alongside Neill in “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” remembered him as a “very steady, peaceful, grounded man.”

Sam Neill had pneumonia before death, costar says

Rima Te Wiata, who starred alongside Neill in “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” remembered him as a “very steady, peaceful, grounded man.”

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

July 14, 2026 3:45 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Sam Neill in Auckland, New Zealand, on Nov. 21, 2025. Credit:

Fiona Goodall/Getty

- Rima Te Wiata indicated that Sam Neill had pneumonia before his death.

- The actress starred with Neill in *Hunt for the Wilderpeople*.

- Neill’s family said that he was cancer-free at the time of his death on Monday.

One of Sam Neill’s costars is sharing a new account of the days leading up to his death.

Rima Te Wiata, who played the *Jurassic Park* actor’s wife in Taika Waititi’s 2016 adventure-comedy *Hunt for the Wilderpeople*, gave a heartfelt interview with the *NZ Herald*, in which she indicated that Neill was diagnosed with pneumonia before his death on Monday.

“He said once in the press, he’s not scared of death, but he would be annoyed,” she said, referencing a 2023 ABC interview in which Neill said that he’s “not afraid” of death, but that he would be “annoyed because there things [he] still want to do” with his life. He gave that interview after sharing that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. Neill later announced that he was cancer-free in April.

“So I think, yeah, he would be like, ‘Oh, for goodness sake! I got over my cancer, and now look. Now I get pneumonia. What next?’” Te Wiata said. “You know? But he’s on his big journey now.”

Sam Neill, Rima Te Wiata, and Julian Dennison in ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’.

** has reached out to representatives for Neill for comment.

Te Wiata discussed her memories of working with Neill earlier in the interview. “He’s a very steady, peaceful, grounded man,” she said. “And he’s a very good energy to have around. Very easygoing. He was more like a lovely gardener. Somebody who is doing the veggie garden or something. But there was sort of a gentlemanly demeanor that went along with that.”

Sam Neill’s 10 best roles, ranked

How ‘Jurassic Park’ star Sam Neill reunited with his son 25 years after putting him up for adoption

When asked what made Neill such a talented actor, Te Wiata said that his status as “a really good communicator” and “really good listener” helped him excel at his craft.

“To be a really good actor, you’ve got to be a good listener,” she said. “He had really good instincts and a really good spirit. So he had a lot of empathy, and those qualities really helped him find the dramatic things — he had compassion for his characters. Even if they were awful, he knew how to understand things from their perspective.”

Neill’s family announced his death at 78 on Monday.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,” his family’s statement said. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our****** EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Neill’s sudden death inspired tributes from numerous notable collaborators, including Laura Dern, Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kidman, Jeff Goldblum, Toni Collette, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

- Celebrities & Creators

- Celebrity Death News

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Celebrity”