🦖 NAME THE 1993 DINOSAUR BLOCKBUSTER! 🦖 Released in the UK on this day in 1993, this was the film that made SAM NEILL a permanent part of movie history. We lost Sam only a few days ago, and it still feels wrong to write that. He was never the loudest star in the room, never the obvious Hollywood showman, but that was exactly his strength. As Dr Alan Grant, he gave the impossible a human centre: dry humour, wary intelligence, muddy boots, and that unforgettable mix of terror and wonder when cinema’s dinosaurs first came thundering back to life. But Sam Neill was never just “the Jurassic Park man.” Born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, he built one of the most quietly impressive screen careers of the last 50 years. Sleeping Dogs made him a major New Zealand presence. My Brilliant Career showed his romantic restraint. Possession proved he could go strange, intense and fearless. Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, The Piano, In the Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon all showed different sides of him: elegant, haunted, funny, unnerving, decent, dangerous when required. Later, he brought that same lived-in authority to Peaky Blinders, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and countless smaller roles where he somehow made the whole thing feel more grounded just by turning up. Off screen, he seemed just as loved: warm, dry, self-mocking, a vineyard man, a reader, a friend to half the acting world, and one of those rare performers people spoke about with real affection rather than routine praise. He gave blockbuster cinema one of its great calm centres, but he also gave us far more than that: wit, grace, oddness, intelligence and a beautifully unforced humanity. Thank you, Sam. You were one of the good ones.

  The answer is Jurassic Park — the 1993 dinosaur blockbuster that turned Sam Neill into a permanent part of movie history.   One important correction before we begin: Sam …

🦖 NAME THE 1993 DINOSAUR BLOCKBUSTER! 🦖 Released in the UK on this day in 1993, this was the film that made SAM NEILL a permanent part of movie history. We lost Sam only a few days ago, and it still feels wrong to write that. He was never the loudest star in the room, never the obvious Hollywood showman, but that was exactly his strength. As Dr Alan Grant, he gave the impossible a human centre: dry humour, wary intelligence, muddy boots, and that unforgettable mix of terror and wonder when cinema’s dinosaurs first came thundering back to life. But Sam Neill was never just “the Jurassic Park man.” Born in Northern Ireland and raised in New Zealand, he built one of the most quietly impressive screen careers of the last 50 years. Sleeping Dogs made him a major New Zealand presence. My Brilliant Career showed his romantic restraint. Possession proved he could go strange, intense and fearless. Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, The Piano, In the Mouth of Madness and Event Horizon all showed different sides of him: elegant, haunted, funny, unnerving, decent, dangerous when required. Later, he brought that same lived-in authority to Peaky Blinders, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and countless smaller roles where he somehow made the whole thing feel more grounded just by turning up. Off screen, he seemed just as loved: warm, dry, self-mocking, a vineyard man, a reader, a friend to half the acting world, and one of those rare performers people spoke about with real affection rather than routine praise. He gave blockbuster cinema one of its great calm centres, but he also gave us far more than that: wit, grace, oddness, intelligence and a beautifully unforced humanity. Thank you, Sam. You were one of the good ones. Read More

  The answer is Jurassic Park — the 1993 dinosaur blockbuster that turned Sam Neill into a permanent part of movie history.   One important correction before we begin: Sam …

Read More