Sir Sam Neill won his third Logie award last night.
Sir Sam Neill won his third Logie award last night.
One of New Zealand’s greatest actors, Sir Sam Neill, won his third Logie at last night’s television awards in Australia, but he wasn’t there to receive it.
The Jurassic Park and Hunt for the Wilderpeople actor won the Silver Logie for Best Lead Actor in a Drama for his performanceas defence lawyer Brett Colby in legal drama The Twelve.
The show first hit screens in 2022, its second season was released last year and its third is scheduled to air this month.
Neill has previously won Most Outstanding Actor (2005) and Most Popular Actor (2023) at the prestigious Australian television awards.
Neill wasn’t the only Kiwi to win an award last night with comedian Guy Montgomery taking home the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent for his show Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee.
The show first came to New Zealand screens in 2023, on Three and ThreeNow, before getting an Australian version on the ABC.
Kiwi actor Sir Sam Neill on his Bannockburn vineyard during wine harvest. Photo / George Heard
In 2022, Neill was diagnosed with stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
He underwent chemotherapy treatment, however that began to fail and he chose to start taking a new chemotherapy drug which he will receive monthly for the rest of his life, he told the Guardian in 2023.
“I’m not afraid to die but it would annoy me,” he said.
“Because I’d really like another decade or two, you know? We’ve built all these lovely terraces, we’ve got these olive trees and cypresses, and I want to be around to see it all mature. And I’ve got my lovely little grandchildren. I want to see them get big.
“But as for the dying? I couldn’t care less.”
He told Australian Story in 2023 that he is “prepared” for the reality that the experimental drug will cease to be effective at some point.
“I know I’ve got it,” he said of his cancer, “but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”
Sir Sam Neill won the Best Lead Actor in a Drama award for his performance in legal drama The Twelve. Photo / Ross Coffey
Speaking on ABC’s The Assembly last year, the-77-year-old, who is in remission, said his ongoing treatment is “brutal” but he’s grateful for receiving it.
