Sam Neill‘s ex-girlfriend, Laura Tingle, is opening up about the actor’s ill health before his death at age 78.
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“The bottom line is he’d been fighting various forms of cancer for at least the last five years intensively,” Tingle said during a Tuesday, July 14, appearance on ABC Radio Sydney’s Sydney Mornings program. “That takes a toll on anybody’s body. He’d had a lot of chemo and a lot of immunotherapy. Thankfully, it had finally cleared him of the blood cancer that he had. But that left him pretty compromised in terms of his immune system, and I think his poor old body sort of got a bit exhausted.”
“He’s been pretty sick for the last couple of weeks, and everybody who loved him has been willing him on from near and far, but I think it was just a bit too much to recover from one more time,” the journalist added.
The Jurassic Park star’s family confirmed his death in a statement on Monday, July 13, stressing that the actor, who previously battled stage III blood cancer, was cancer-free at the time of his death.
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday, 13th July, in Sydney, Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” the statement said.
His family continued, “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer-free. They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care.”
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“More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss,” the statement concluded.
Tingle, 65, whom the actor dated from 2018 to 2021, paid tribute to Neill in an Instagram post on Monday, writing, “Sweet Dreams darling Sam.”
Neill was best known for playing paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg‘s hit film Jurassic Park, which was released in 1993. He reprised the role in 2001’s Jurassic Park III and 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion. He also appeared in the hit TV show Peaky Blinders.
“Sam was exceptionally collaborative,” Spielberg said in a statement to Variety. “It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children.”
The director added, “I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
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This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 3:51 AM.