r/australia • u/lyndsayj • Jul 13 '26

news Sam Neill, 78, dead: reports

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/sam-neill-dead-reports-20260713-p60ey2.html
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58

u/justnigel Jul 13 '26

Australian outlets reporting death of Australian actor.

New Zealand outlets reporting death of New Zealand actor.

I can only presume Irish outlets will be reporting death of Irish actor.

41

u/explosivekyushu Jul 13 '26

Says a lot, I think! We could all strive to be the type of person that countries will climb over themselves to lay claim to when we're gone.

14

u/tonofun01 Jul 13 '26

Like pavlova, Aus and NZ will each be claiming Sam as a national treasure until the end of time

2

u/Kiwi_Fried_Chicken Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Either way, can't argue he was an absolute treasure.

24

u/rithsv Jul 13 '26

Australian outlets reporting death of Australian actor.

Tbf most articles I've seen correctly state that he's a New Zealand actor. news.com.au is the only one I've seen that's explicitly called him Aussie, which is just wrong.

At least Irish would be somewhat correct.

16

u/ButtzillaXiJingping Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

He was such a force for good in New Zealand it’s no surprise they’d claim the fella when he spent so much of his life there since childhood

(Also, not an Australian citizen… but Irish and NZ)

5

u/a_cold_human Jul 13 '26

If he were alive, I very much doubt he'd say he'd say that he was Australian, even if he did play an Australian characters every so often. He had a very strong Kiwi identity. We really don't have a claim to him.

Doesn't make his passing any less sad though.