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Sam Neill
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Sam Neill, 58, is a serious actor and a serious enophile. But the last thing he wants is for people to take him or his wine too seriously. Growing up in a wine-loving family on New Zealand's South Island, he learned early on that wine is a healthy, fun part of life to be enjoyed with good company. Years later, after a string of box-office successes such as The Hunt For Red October, The Piano and Jurassic Park, Neill was afforded the opportunity to start his own winery, which produced its first vintage in 1997. By then, the Central Otago district had begun to build a reputation for producing distinctive Pinot Noirs. Neill's winery, Two Paddocks, is no exception.
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Sam Neill (born September 14, 1947) is an New Zealand actor. He has been in lots of movies. Sometimes people in Australia say he is an Australian actor. Sam Neill has been in "Jurassic Park", "Dead Calm", "Event Horizon", "Sirens" and lots of other very famous movies. Sam Neill is sometimes a bad guy and sometimes a good guy in movies.
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One of the few actors who comes off as both sexy and grown-up on screen, Sam Neill gravitated slowly to an acting career despite his onstage theatrical experiences following college. Born on September 14, 1947 in Omagh, Ireland (County Tyrone in British-occupied Northern Ireland), Neill moved with his family to Dunedin, New Zealand when he was three. After attending boarding school at Christ’s College in Christchurch, Neill studied English literature at the University of Canterbury. Emerging from university, he became a member of the New Zealand National Film Unit and began directing documentaries, making occasional forays in front of the camera—at the time, he was crippled by stage fright—in fringe productions and short films. Finally, after six years with the film unit, he took to acting with a force, landing the lead role in Roger Donaldson's "Sleeping Dogs" (1977), New Zealand’s first feature to get a theatrical release in the United States. Soon after, the actor relocated to Australia where he first gained acclaim for his performance as a young grazier in Gillian Armstrong's "My Brilliant Career" (1979), the first of many films that would cast him opposite a self-tortured female character played by an imposing screen presence (in this case, Judy Davis).
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After 25 years in the business, Sam Neill was still on top. The Dish, concerning a bunch of Aussies controlling the only satellite link to Neil Armstrong's moon-mission, was one of Australia's biggest ever hits. And then there was Jurassic Park 3, the first time Neill had reprised a film role - a guaranteed monster, if ever there was one. It was that balance again - low budget excellence and blockbusting epics. Neill moved on to The Zookeeper which saw him stay behind to look after the animals in a zoo when yet another Balkans crisis goes off, then went epic once more with the enormous Andrew Davies-adapted TV miniseries Doctor Zhivago. He'd follow this with Dirty Deeds, playing a bent cop involved in a struggle between thug Bryan Brown and Chicago hood John Goodman over the slot machine business in 1969 Sydney.
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Sam Neill was born in Northern Ireland the year 1947. His family returned to the South Island of New Zealand in 1954. After his graduation, he worked with the New Zealand Players and other theater groups. He ... was a film director, editor and scriptwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit. At the beginning of the eigthies he moved to England where he became famous as the title character in Reilly: The Ace of Spies. In 1993, he achieved critical success with The Piano (and Jurassic Park).
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Sam Neill was born in Ireland, not New Zealand. Just like all those folks who call erroneously call Nicole Kidman (born in Hawaii), Naomi Watts and Olivia Newton John (born in Englan) Aussies, Neill is no Kiwi (New Zealander).
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Sam Neill