Sam Neill Biography

One of the most famous film personalities to hail from the South Pacific, New Zealand-bred actor Sam Neill possesses the kind of reassuring handsomeness and soft-spoken strength that have made him an ideal leading man. Born Nigel Neill to a military family in Omagh, Northern Ireland, Neill relocated to New Zealand in 1953 at the age of six. There he picked up the nickname that would become his stage name, and attended both the University of Canterbury and the University of Victoria before beginning his acting career. Neill labored as a director/editor/screenwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for several years; he made his first movie in 1975 and scored his first significant film success four years later as the romantic lead opposite Judy Davis in director Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. Shortly thereafter, Neill was brought to England under the sponsorship of star James Mason (who undoubtedly recognized the marked similarity between his acting style and Neill's). The actor's subsequent movie work included two memorable collaborations with actress Meryl Streep and director Fred Schepisi: Plenty (1985) and A Cry in the Dark (1988). Neill's British TV credits were highlighted by his starring role in the unorthodox espionage drama Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983), for which he won the British television BAFTA Best Actor award. He also began working on American films during the '80s, including the 1981 Omen sequel The Final Conflict (in which he demonstrated a considerable breadth of range as Satan's son Damien) and the 1987 TV miniseries Amerika. Neill also kept busy with projects down under, with perhaps his most memorable film being Dead Calm (1989), a masterfully crafted thriller that starred the actor as Nicole Kidman's husband.Neill truly came to international prominence during the '90s (as evidenced by his guest spot as a cat burglar on an episode of The Simpsons). He experienced a bumper-crop year in 1993, portraying the raptor-fearing Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park, before returning to New Zealand to portray Holly Hunter's taciturn, unexpectedly violent husband in The Piano (1993). He was also honored with the Order of the British Empire that same year. Neill continued to work on a wealth of diverse international projects throughout the rest of the decade, notably John Duigan's Sirens (1994), which cast him as a '30s bohemian artist; the Australian satire Children of the Revolution (1996), reuniting him with Judy Davis; Revengers' Comedies (1997), which cast him as a suicidal businessman; the acclaimed miniseries Merlin (1998), in which he played the titular wizard; Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998), as the husband of Kristin Scott Thomas (the two had previously co-starred in Revengers' Comedies); and Bicentennial Man (1999), which featured the actor as the head of a family who purchases an uncannily human robot played by Robin Williams.In addition to acting and managing a New Zealand winery, Neill directed an acclaimed 1995 documentary about the New Zealand film industry, Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

• 1. Alan Grant: How would you classify it Billy?
  2. Billy Brennan: It's a super-predator: Suchomimus, the snout.
  3. Alan Grant: Think bigger.
  4. Billy Brennan: Baryonyx.
  5. Alan Grant: Not with that sail. [shows him a tooth] Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.
  6. Billy Brennan: [takes the tooth] I don' t remember that one being on InGen's list.
  7. Alan Grant: Because it wasn't. Which makes you wonder what else they were up to.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Brandon M (3 days ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Oh my god... it's a bird cage!
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Jed G (22 days ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: We're out of the job.
  2. Ian Malcolm: Don't you mean extinct?
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Jed G (56 days ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: [after Malcom lights a flare to distract the T-Rex] Ian! Freeze!
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Kris R (3 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Dann M (4 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: This is T-Rex pee? [Eric nods yes] How'd you get it?
  2. Eric Kirby: You don't wanna know.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Francis L (4 months ago)

• 1. Dean Spanley: Loved it, maybe not for main stream audiences but very enjoyable all the same.
  From Dean Spanley (My Talks with Dean Spanley). Submitted by Liz V (5 months ago)

• 1. Captain Miller: You miss me, you blow out the hull.
  2. Weir: What makes you think I'll miss?
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by Joel L (5 months ago)

• 1. Captain Miller: Vacate! I want off this ship!
  2. Weir: You can't leave. She won't let you.
  3. Captain Miller: You just get your gear and get back on the Lewis and Clark, Doctor, or you'll find yourself walkin' home.
  4. Weir: I am home.
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by Joel L (5 months ago)

• 1. Captain Miller: Oh. My. God. What happened to your eyes?
  2. Weir: Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.
  3. Captain Miller: What are you talking about?
  4. Weir: I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos. Pure... evil. When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was alive! Look at her, Miller. Isn't she beautiful?
  5. Captain Miller: Your "beautiful" ship killed its crew, Doctor.
  6. Weir: Well... now she has another crew. Now she has us.
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by Joel L (5 months ago)

• 1. Weir: You can't leave. She won't let you.
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by Joel L (5 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: It's it's a dinosaur!!
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by T R (5 months ago)

• 1. Paul Kirby: [a loud roar rocks the jungle] What was that?
  2. Billy Brennan: That's a Tyrannosaurus.
  3. Alan Grant: I don't think so. It sounds bigger.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Joel L (6 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: We haven't landed yet.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Joel L (6 months ago)

• 1. Eric Kirby: I read both of your books. I liked the first one more. Before you were on the island. You liked dinosaurs back then.
  2. Alan Grant: Back then they hadn't tried to eat me yet.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Joel L (6 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we have the slightest idea of what to expect?
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by John R (6 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. [Alan reading]
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Juan F (6 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Life finds a way.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Maria Y (6 months ago)

• 1. Amanda Kirby: This is how you make dinosaurs?
  2. Alan Grant: No, this is how you play God.
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Maria Y (6 months ago)

• 1. Weir: And now... it is time to go back.
  2. Captain Miller: [sounding bored] I know. To hell
  3. Weir: You know nothing. Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse. Let me show you!
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by David B (9 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I've decided *not* to endorse your park.
  2. John Hammond: Neither do I.
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Lucas M (9 months ago)

• 1. Charles Bromley: Do you like being a vampire?
  2. Frankie Dalton: Yes, sir.
  3. Charles Bromley: Why?
  4. Frankie Dalton: I'm good at this. I was never very good at being human.
  From Daybreakers. Submitted by Elaha M (9 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park.
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Saim C (10 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: This is good! Here we are on the worst place on earth, and we're not even getting paid!
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Saim C (10 months ago)

• 1. Capt. Marko Ramius: Re-verify our range to target... one ping only.
  2. Capt. Vasily Borodin: Captain, I - I - I just...
  3. Capt. Marko Ramius: Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.
  From The Hunt for Red October. Submitted by Stu P (11 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Nobody move a muscle! [T- rex roars and everyone besides Grant runs away]
  From Jurassic Park III. Submitted by Joseph P (11 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Looks like we're out of a job.
  2. Ian Malcolm: Don't you mean extinct.
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Jonathon P (11 months ago)

• 1. Weir: Do you see ?!
  2. Weir: Do You See?!
  3. Weir: DO YOU SEE?!?!
  4. Captain Miller: Yes. I see. [Presses detonator switch]
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by Will B (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: Every species can smell its own extinction. The last ones left won't have a pretty time of it. And in ten years, maybe less, the human race will just be a bedtime story for their children. A myth, nothing more.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: It's Cane's story and it'll spread with each new reader. That's how it gets its power.
  2. Dr. Wrenn: What about the people who don't read?
  3. John Trent: (smiles) There's a movie.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (talks to a teenage boy reading a Sutter Cane book) Like the book?
  2. Young Teen: I love it.
  3. John Trent: (pulls out an axe) Good. Then this shouldn't come as a surprise. (Kills the teenager)
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (about the new book) Have you read it?
  2. Paul: No. I never read Cane's work. I haven't got the stomach for it.
  3. John Trent: Pull it. Don't distribute it. Even if everything I've said is totally Looney Tunes...I know this book will drive people crazy.
  4. Paul: Well, let's hope so. The movie comes out next month.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Sutter Cane: (on the bus with John Trent) I'm not going anywhere. I'm God now. You understand?
  2. John Trent: God's not supposed to be a hack horror writer.
  3. Sutter Cane: But maybe I can help you believe. Look around when you wake up. Did I ever tell you my favorite color was blue? (Everything on the bus turns blue)
  4. John Trent: (frightened) Aaaaahhhhhhh!
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: Hey, kid. Did you ever hear of Hobbs's End?
  2. Paper Boy: What? (Rides away on his bicycle)
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Sutter Cane: Do you want to know the problem with places like this? With religion in general? It's never known how to convey the anatomy of horror. Religion seeks discipline through fear, yet doesn't understand the true nature of creation. No one's ever believed it enough to make it real. The same cannot be said of my world.
  2. John Trent: Your books aren't real.
  3. Sutter Cane: But they've sold over a billion copies. I've been translated into eighteen languages. More people believe in my work than believe in the Bible.
  4. John Trent: You got a point.
  5. Sutter Cane: I think you know it.
  6. John Trent: There has to be some kind of an explanation for what I've seen tonight. I'll sort this shit out later, but right now there has to be some kind of a simple fu**ing explanation.
  7. Sutter Cane: Always looking for the con. Even now you're trying to rationalize.
  8. John Trent: Anyway, your books suck.
  9. Sutter Cane: You must try reading my new one. The others have had quite an effect, but this one will drive you absolutely mad.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: Busy night. Special effects, hidden speakers. You people are professionals, I'll give you that.
  2. Farmer: The thing I can't remember is what came first, us or the book.
  3. John Trent: We are not living in a Sutter Cane story! This is not reality!
  4. Farmer: Reality is not what it used to be.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: You an actor?
  2. Farmer: Take a hint, leave. This ain't no tourist town.
  3. John Trent: Oh, I've been trying to. You guys are good, you know; you, the old lady at the hotel. Really, really good.
  4. Farmer: Cane's been messing with the church. Now something came leaking out, took the little ones first, then passed it on to us.
  5. John Trent: Can I buy you a beer?
  6. Farmer: Don't let it get to you. Just get out.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: I was just on my way out. I thought I'd stop and admire the artwork.
  2. Mrs. Pickman: It's beautiful, isn't it?
  3. John Trent: Sure is. Styles told me you painted it yourself.
  4. Mrs. Pickman: You mean the pretty young thing you came in here with? I don't know her at all. Does she know me?
  5. John Trent: She claims she does. (Points at the painting) So you're not responsible for this?
  6. Mrs. Pickman: Heeeeell no.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: What's it about, the new one (the book)?
  2. Linda Styles: It's about the end to everything, and it starts here in this place, with an evil that returns and takes over Hobbs's End. Piece by piece, starting with the children. It's about people turning into things, creatures that aren't human anymore.
  3. John Trent: It's fiction, Styles, fiction.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: This whole thing has been staged, that's how. You, Harglow, and Cane put me through all of this so I can blab to the media about Cane's haunted little town, help you sell a few more million copies. Well, f**k that!
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: Miss Styles, if that's what you saw, then yeah, I guess it would be a little unsettling. I'd be a little unnerved myself. But regardless of what you saw, regardless of what you think, we are not living inside a Sutter Cane story.
  2. Linda Styles: (picks up the book) They're all in here.
  3. John Trent: The Mrs. Pickman in the book is a lunatic who chops her husband into coleslaw. That sweet old thing that we met downstairs isn't capable of anything worse than, dipping her dentures into her husband's beer.
  4. Linda Styles: Trent, I know you think this is a joke. Just listen to me for a second, please. What if Cane's work isn't fiction?
  5. John Trent: Oh, for Christ's sake. This is reality. (Knocks on the desk) You hear that. Reality?
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: We'd like a room, please. We're on our way to Boston. We thought we'd take a break in your famous little town.
  2. Mrs. Pickman: Famous?
  3. John Trent: Yeah, what with the whole Sutter Cane thing and all.
  4. Mrs. Pickman: Sut-Sutter who?
  5. John Trent: Cane. We heard he came from around here, and comes back to stay once in a while.
  6. Mrs. Pickman: Uh, I don't know anybody named Cane.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (wakes up right after Linda mysteriously drives into Hobbs End) Styles, you're fantastic! You found it. (Linda looks baffled as to how she actually got there) What's wrong?
  2. Linda Styles: (bewildered) You drive.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Linda Styles: I just like being scared. Cane's work scares me.
  2. John Trent: What's to be scared about? It's not like it's real or anything.
  3. Linda Styles: It's not real from your point of view, and right now reality shares your point of view. What scares me about Cane's work might happen if reality shared his point of view.
  4. John Trent: Whoa. We're not talking about reality here. We're talking about fiction. It's different, you know.
  5. Linda Styles: A reality is just what we tell each other it is. Sane and insane could easily switch places if the insane were to become the majority. You would find yourself locked in a padded cell, wondering what happened to the world.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (tells Linda while driving) Never, never, never throw chips at a driver.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (talking about Sutter Cane's disappearance and about his books) Now I know why Cane had the artwork done himself. See this? It's a map. The red dot is Hobbs's End. It's not on any real map, but look at this. The two line up. Like it or not, Cane's book covers place Hobbs's End, right in the middle of New England.
  2. Linda Styles: So you're saying the man went someplace fictional?
  3. John Trent: It's a real place in a real state; New Hampshire, to be precise.
  4. Paul: But it's not on the map.
  5. John Trent: Well, not on any new ones, but maybe on some old ones. There's plenty of forgotten towns across America. Makes a great contest, doesn't it? Put the pieces together, find the town, win a Sutter Cane lunchbox.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Young Teen: (walks up to John Trent in the book store) I can see.
  2. John Trent: Excuse me?
  3. Young Teen: (in a creepy daze) He sees you.
  4. John Trent: (baffled) Great, uh. Tell him I say hi.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: We fu**ed up the air, the water, we fu**ed up each other. Why don't we finish the job, by just flushing our brains down the toilet?
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Linda Styles: Cane's writing has been known to have an effect on his less stable readers.
  2. John Trent: An effect? Like what?
  3. Linda Styles: Well, disorientation, memory loss, severe paranoid reaction.
  4. John Trent: People pay money to feel like that?!
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Paul: I understand you were there, when the poor man went crazy in midtown Manhattan. You witnessed the shooting, I believe.
  2. John Trent: That lunatic with the ax? That was Cane's agent?!
  3. Paul: Hard to believe, isn't it?
  4. John Trent: Yeah, well, you'd think a guy that outsells Stephen King could find better representation.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Paul: Linda reads books for a living. She's one of our best editors. Since she joined the firm she's been handling Sutter Cane exclusively.
  2. John Trent: Isn't he the guy that writes that horror crap?
  3. Linda Styles: Maybe he's too sophisticated for you. Sutter Cane happens to be this century's most widely read author. You can forget about Stephen King. Cane outsells them all.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (to a man he's investigating for insurance fraud) A word of advice. You want to pull a scam, don't make your wife a partner. If you do, don't fu**k around behind her back.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: You're waiting to hear about my 'them,' aren't you?
  2. Dr. Wrenn: You're what?
  3. John Trent: My 'them.' Every paranoid schizophrenic has one a 'them,' a 'they,' an 'it.' And you want to hear about my 'them,' don't you?
  4. Dr. Wrenn: I want to know how you got here.
  5. John Trent: Things are turning to sh*t out there, aren't they?
  6. Dr. Wrenn: Let's talk about you.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Dr. Wrenn: My name is Dr. Wrenn, and I am going to try and get you out of here.
  2. John Trent: After all my redecorating? No. I think I'll stay.
  3. Dr. Wrenn: There's a guard with a pair of swollen testicles who swears you wanted out of here.
  4. John Trent: I, uh, well...I've changed my mind.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: This is a rotten way to end it.
  2. Sutter Cane: This is not the ending. You haven't read it yet.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (music in the asylum starts playing) Not the Carpenters, too.
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (locked in a cell) I'm not insane. You hear me? I'm not insane!
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. John Trent: (gets locked up right after kicking a guard in the balls) Look, I'm sorry about the balls! It was a lucky shot, that's all! Wait!
  From In the Mouth of Madness. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Weir: You can't leave.... she won't let you.
  From Event Horizon. Submitted by John H (13 months ago)

• 1. Alan Grant: Life found a way!
  From Jurassic Park. Submitted by Tyler C (14 months ago)