Actor Sam Neill was reportedly battling pneumonia in the period leading up to his death, his "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" co-star Rima Te Wiata shared. Neill died on Monday at the age of 78.
"It really sucks, actually," Te Wiata told the New Zealand Herald. She suggested Neill might have reacted to the pneumonia with a sense of weary resignation, given his recent triumph over cancer. "I think he would be like: ‘For goodness sake, I got over my cancer. And now look, now I get pneumonia. What next?’”
Te Wiata did not provide further specifics regarding Neill's illness. Representatives for Neill did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Neill's family announced his passing in a statement, noting he was "surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life." The statement also confirmed that "the loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free." His relatives expressed "deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care" and requested privacy.
Earlier, Laura Tingle, Neill's ex-partner, stated that the actor had been "pretty sick" before his death. Tingle, a journalist, revealed on "Sydney Mornings" that Neill had been "fighting various forms of cancer for at least the last five years, intensively." She added that he had undergone "a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy."
According to Tingle, Neill had been cleared of the blood cancer he was battling, but the treatments had left his immune system compromised. "I think his poor old body sort of got a bit exhausted," she said. Tingle, who dated Neill from 2018 to 2021, mentioned he had been "sick for the last couple of weeks," and recovering from his recent health struggles proved too difficult.
In April, Neill had announced he was cancer-free following a battle with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. His family's statement also emphasized his cancer-free status at the time of his death.