Sam Neill, who has died aged 78, is being remembered not only as the star of Jurassic Park but as a highly versatile actor whose career stretched across five decades and far beyond his most famous role. The article argues that while Jurassic Park made him an international household name, his wider body of work showed far greater range, from arthouse cinema to horror and period drama. That matters because it places his legacy in a broader context, highlighting him as a serious and adaptable performer rather than simply the face of one blockbuster franchise.

Born in Northern Ireland in 1947 and raised in New Zealand from the age of seven, Neill came to worldwide fame relatively late, at 43, when Jurassic Park was released in 1993. Before that, he had built a strong career through films including Sleeping Dogs, My Brilliant Career, Possession, A Cry in the Dark and The Piano, winning the Australian Film Institute award for best lead actor for A Cry in the Dark. Jurassic Park went on to gross more than $970m (£720m) and became the highest-grossing film of all time until Titanic overtook it in 1997, cementing Neill's place in global cinema.