Jurassic Park Star Sam Neill, Age 76, Embraces Fearlessness in the Face of Stage-Three Blood Cancer; Opens Up on Failed Chemotherapy Treatment and Heartbreaking Health Battle Through Personal Photos

Sam Neill has insisted he is not afraid of dying as he battles stage three blood cancer.

The Jurassic Park star told Australian history that chemotherapy didn’t work, leaving him in a “fight for life” – but that a new experimental drug is now working to combat his non-Hodgkin’s blood cancer, angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.

Despite the promising news, the 76-year-old knows it won’t last forever. His doctors told him that one day the medication would stop working – something he says he is “prepared for”.

“I am in no way afraid of dying. That doesn’t worry me. It never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed,” the 76-year-old said.

“I would be bored because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I’m not afraid of it.

Neill also shared photos from his chemotherapy period, with the actor hard to recognize without his salt-and-pepper hair and beard.

“There were times over the last year where I had to look in the mirror and I didn’t look good,” he told ABC. “I was stripped of any kind of dignity.”

He said: “I am in no way afraid of dying. That doesn’t worry me. “It never worried me from the start, but I would be annoyed,” the 76-year-old said. Pictured with his son Tim Neill-Harrow

Neill said he discovered he had cancer last year during his first trip back to New Zealand, after lockdowns made returning home to see family virtually impossible for two years.

His son Tim told Australian Story how his father had been back in New Zealand for just an hour when a doctor phoned him with the devastating news that he had cancer.

“When he hung up and we sat down, we cried a little together. It was supposed to be a happy day. He couldn’t stay,” Tim said.

Sam continued: “I was really fighting for my life. And it was all a new and rather worrying world.

“I went through three or four months of reasonably conventional and brutal chemotherapies.”

Tim went to visit his father while he was undergoing chemotherapy and was horrified when he saw how weak he was.

“I was shocked, I collapsed and could barely hold him. He only had bones and skin. And then he gave me a hard time by being upset and saying I was stressing him out, but I was like, “What are you talking about, Dad?

Just when they thought Neill’s health might improve, he received even worse news: the cancer was back and it was worse this time.

Jurassic Park star told TV show Australian Story he’d be ‘annoyed’ if he died soon

“There were times over the last year where I had to look in the mirror and I didn’t look good,” he told ABC. “I was stripped of any kind of dignity.”

Neill was eventually put on experimental cancer treatment, which, fortunately, began to work.

He’s been in remission for 12 months now, but admits he’s “prepared” for the fact that it will eventually stop working.

“I know I have it, but I don’t really care. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it,” he said of the disease.

Neill now receives infusions every two weeks and will do so for the rest of his life or until the medication stops working.

The sessions are exhausting, “very grim and depressing,” he said.

Neill first revealed the news of his illness in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This, where he wrote in the first chapter that he was “maybe dying”.

“I didn’t really know how long I had to live,” the actor told ABC. “And I thought, yeah, I should probably write something for my kids, my grandkids, because I might not be here in a few months and it would be nice for them to get a feel for me , you know, and and some of the things that I’ve done.

In an interview with The Guardian, the actor said: “The problem is, I’m a crook. I things may need to be speeded up. I found myself doing nothing.

“And I’m used to working. I love working. I love going to work. I love being with people every day and enjoying human company, friendship and all those things. And suddenly I was deprived of it. And I thought, “What am I going to do?” »

Sam has been in remission for 12 months thanks to cancer medication, but admits he’s ‘prepared’ for the fact it will eventually stop working

“I know I have it, but I don’t really care. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it,” he said of the disease.

Neill also told the BBC that he bEgan wrote his memoirs for entertainment and to “give me a reason to get through the day.”

The book looks back on the New Zealand actor’s 50-year screen career, as well as his sudden illness.

“I thought I had to do something, and I thought, ‘Should I start writing?'” he told the BBC.

“I didn’t think I had a book in me, I just thought I’d write a few stories. And I found it more and more captivating.

“A year later, not only did I write the book – I didn’t have a ghostwriter – but it came out in record time,” he said proudly.

And about the literary endeavor, he also said that he “never intended to write a book.”

Sam explained: “But as I wrote, I realized that it actually gave me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, ‘I’ll write about this tomorrow… it gives me will entertain.”‘

“And so that really saved my life, because I couldn’t have gotten through that without doing something, you know.”

Sam’s specific disease was diagnosed as angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.

Symptoms may include high fever, night sweats, rash, and autoimmune conditions.

Sam, Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards are pictured in 1993’s Jurassic Park

Reflecting on life, the veteran actor admitted: “I’m not afraid to die. But I would be bored with it. Because I would really like another decade or two, you know?

“We built all these beautiful terraces, we have these olive trees and cypress trees, and I want to be there to see it all mature. And I have my adorable grandchildren. I want to see them grow.

“But as for the dying? I do not care.

The star was married to Japanese makeup artist Noriko Watanabe from 1989 to 2017 and they share two children: Elena, 32, and Tim, 40.

Sam’s most notable role is that of Dr. Alan Grant, who he played in the Jurassic World franchise most recently in last year’s third installment.

Sam and co-star Laura Dern are pictured in a Jurassic Park: Dominion photo