Sam Neill, protagonist of the saga Jurassic Park, announced in an interview with the newspaper Guardian on the occasion of the publication, next Tuesday, March 21, of his memoirs Did I Ever Tell You This? (Have I ever told you this?), who is being treated for a rare blood cancer at an advanced stage. The 75-year-old Northern Ireland-born New Zealand actor said he was diagnosed with the disease — angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma — a year ago while he was on a promotional tour for the film. Jurassic World: Dominion.
“The thing is, I’m finished. Possibly dying,” he announces in the first chapter of the book, where he reviews his long career, his life as a star and his rest on his New Zealand farm, where he resides. Neill initially received chemotherapy, but when it began to fail he decided to try a new anti-cancer drug that he will continue to receive monthly for the rest of his life, although he now claims to be cancer free.
“I found myself with nothing to do (…) And I am used to working. I love working. I love being with people every day and enjoying company and friendship. And suddenly I was deprived of it. And I thought, ‘what am I going to do?’ Neill stated in the interview at the Australian edition of Guardian Posted on March 18. “I never intended to write a book. But as I went on and on writing, I realized that he was actually giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, ‘Tomorrow I’ll write about it…that will entertain me.’
The actor announced that in a week he will return to work to shoot the adaptation of the novel in Australia Apples Never Fall (Apples Never Fall) by Liane Moriarty. “I can’t say that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” she declares. “But those dark moments put the light in stark relief and have made me feel grateful for each day and immensely grateful for all my friends. I’m just glad to be alive.”
Neill began acting in the seventies in a long career in which he has played more than 150 roles in films such as The Hunt for Red October either The Man Who Whispered to Horsesalthough possibly his best known role is that of paleontologist Alan Grant in Jurassic Park.
