One of the few actors who comes off as both sexy and grown-up on screen, Sam Neill gravitated slowly to an acting career, despite his onstage theatrical experiences following college. As a member of the New Zealand National Film Unit, he worked primarily behind the camera directing documentaries, with only an occasional foray in front of it in fringe productions and short films. Finally, after six years with the film unit, he landed the lead role in Roger Donaldson's "Sleeping Dogs" (1977), the first New Zealand film to get a US release. Soon after, the actor relocated to Australia where he first gained acclaim for his performance as a young grazier in Gillian Armstrong's "My Brilliant Career" (1979), the first of many films that would cast him opposite a self-tortured female character played by an imposing screen presence (in this case, Judy Davis). Neill made such an impact that he soon snagged the starring role as thirtyish anti-Christ Damien Thorn in his first US film (and third of the "Omen" series), "The Final Conflict" (1981).

For someone who has never moved to Hollywood, Neill has fared extremely well in the USA, while keeping his options open to work in other countries. He turned in some of his best feature portrayals of the 80s opposite Meryl Streep in two films directed by Fred Schepisi: "A Cry in the Dark/Evil Angels" (1988), as a father whose child is allegedly carried off by a wild dingo in a based-on-fact story; and the less worthy romantic drama, "Plenty" (1985). For the small screen, he enjoyed tremendous success as a real-life James Bond in the 12-part British series "Reilly: Ace of Spades", airing on PBS' "Mystery!" in 1984, and added to his US resume with TV-movies like "Ivanhoe" (CBS, 1982) "The Blood of Others" (HBO, 1984), and "Leap of Faith" (CBS, 1988), as well as miniseries like "Kane and Abel" (CBS, 1985) and "Amerika" (ABC, 1987). Neill's film career took off in earnest following his performance opposite Nicole Kidman in Philip Noyce's taut thriller "Dead Calm" (1989), to which he brought a quietly commanding middle-aged grace as the distraught husband threatened by interloper Billy Zane.

Neill's role as the Russian submarine captain in "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), adapted from the Tom Clancy thriller, upped his profile dramatically, as well as affording him one of his favorite screen lines: "I would have liked to have seen Montana." After acting in Wim Wenders' "Until the End of the World" (1991) and John Carpenter's "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" (1992), he enjoyed arguably his best year in 1993. Two of his features released that year ("The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior" and the "The Piano") allowed him to film in New Zealand for the first time in 14 years. The latter, in which he played the unsympathetic husband of eventual Best Actress Oscar-winner Holly Hunter, earned the Palme d'Or at Cannes, an award Neill accepted for its absent director Jane Campion. He also squared off against Anjelica Huston in the miniseries "Family Pictures" (ABC) and provided a solid center to Steven Spielberg's blockbuster "Jurassic Park", as a skeptical paleontologist surprised by his encounter with biogenetically-engineered dinosaurs. All the attention helped him get one role which proved he had arrived: a cameo on "The Simpsons" (Fox).

Since then Neill has stayed busy. Normally the picture of control, he played a wild bohemian artist in the Australian-made "Sirens" (1994), and Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" (1995) offered him another chance to play against type as the tormented investigator hired to find a horror writer. That same year, Neill turned in an over-the-top performance as the rogue King Charles II, the benefactor (then bete noir) of Robert Downey Jr., in "Restoration". He also returned to documentary filmmaking with "Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey By Sam Neill" (1995), commissioned by the British Film Institute as part of its "The Century of Cinema" series. He reunited with Judy Davis in the Australian black comedy "Children of the Revolution" and was the nobleman who marries Sigourney Weaver in Showtime's "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" (both 1997). Neill then delivered a tour de force performance as the title character of "Merlin" (1998), NBC's $30 million special effects miniseries bonanza, for which he earned critical kudos and an Emmy nomination. The actor was also effective in a rock solid turn as Kristin Scott Thomas' understanding husband in "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), directed by Robert Redford.

Neill continued to undertake challenging roles in a wide variety of projects. He was well-cast as the wealthy man who brings home a robot to aid around the house in "Bicentennial Man" (1999) and earned critical praise for a pair of Australian-produced films: "My Mother Frank" (1999), which cast him as a chauvinistic, conservative college professor who runs up against a fifty-something co-ed (Sinead Cusack), and "The Dish" (2000), in which he was the cardigan-wearing, imperturbable scientist in charge of the telescope that was to relay signals of the American moon landing in 1969. In between, the actor offered a fine turn as US President Thomas Jefferson in the CBS miniseries "Sally Hemings; An American Scandal" (2000). Following another real-life portrayal on the small screen (this time, the commander of a US submarine trapped underwater in the 2001 NBC movie "Submerged"), Neill revisited his role as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in "Jurassic Park III" (2001).

Neill next kept busy in a variety of low-profile Aussie and European productions such as playing Victor Komarovsky in the 2002 English miniseries adaptation of "Dr. Zhivago" opposite Hans Matheson and Keira Knightley, and he would frequently resurface in Hollywood productions such as the romantic comedy "Wimbledon" (2004), in which he played up-and-coming tennis ace Kirsten Dunst's ambitious, protective father. In British filmmaker Sally Potter’s romantic drama, “Yes” (2005), Neill played a prominent British politician married to a Belfast-born microbiologist (Joan Allen). With a marriage plagued with quarreling and infidelity, his wife enterers into a passionate love affair with a Lebanese surgeon (Simon Abkarian) incognito in London as a restaurant cook. Vibrant and daring, “Yes” was both a love story and a political commentary on the pain and rage brought on by the conflict between the West and the Middle East. Some critics, however, were turned off by the dialogue spoken in iambic pentameter.

from movies.yahoo.com

  "Merlin's Apprentice" (2005) (mini) TV Series (post-production) .... Merlin
Irresistible (2005) (completed)

"The Triangle" (2005) (mini) TV Series .... Eric Benirall
"Mary Bryant" (2005) (mini) TV Series .... Governor Arthur Phillip
Little Fish (2005) .... Brad
"To the Ends of the Earth" (2005) (mini) TV Series .... Mr. Prettiman
Wimbledon (2004) .... Dennis Bradbury
... aka Plus belle victoire, La (France)
Yes (2004/I) .... Anthony
"Jessica" (2004) (mini) TV Series .... Richard Runche
Stiff (2004) (TV) .... Lionel Merricks
Perfect Strangers (2003) .... The Man
"Doctor Zhivago" (2002) (mini) TV Series .... Victor Komarovsky
Leunig Animated (2002) (V) (voice) .... Narrator
Leunig: How Democracy Actually Works (2002) (voice) .... Narrator
Dirty Deeds (2002) .... Ray
... aka Sacré boulot (Canada: French title)
Framed (2002) (TV) .... Eddie Meyers
The Zookeeper (2001) .... Ludovic
... aka Clovek v zoo (Czech Republic)
Jurassic Park III (2001) .... Dr. Alan Grant
... aka JP3 (USA: promotional abbreviation)
Submerged (2001) (TV) .... Lt. Cmdr. Charles B. 'Swede' Momsen
The Magic Pudding (2000) (voice) .... Sam Sawnoff
The Dish (2000) .... Cliff Buxton
My Mother Frank (2000) .... Professor Mortlock
Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000) (TV) .... Thomas Jefferson

Bicentennial Man (1999) .... 'Sir' Richard Martin
... aka 200 Jahre Mann, Der (Germany)
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999) .... Walter Murray Gibson
... aka Damiaan (Belgium: Flemish title)
... aka Father Damien
... aka Molokai: The Forbidden Island (UK: DVD title)
The Revengers' Comedies (1998) .... Henry Bell
... aka Amour, vengeance et trahison (France)
... aka Sweet Revenge (USA: cable TV title)
The Horse Whisperer (1998) .... Robert MacLean
Merlin (1998/II) (TV) .... Merlin
Event Horizon (1997) .... Dr. William Weir
Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997) .... Friedrich Hoffman
... aka Snow White (USA: short title)
... aka Snow White in the Black Forest
... aka Snow White in the Dark Forest
... aka Snow White: A Tale of Terror (Canada: English title)
... aka The Grimm Brothers' Snow White
In Cold Blood (1996) (TV) .... Agent Alvin Dewey
Children of the Revolution (1996) .... David 'Dave' Hoyle, aka Agent 'Nine'
Restoration (1995) .... King Charles II
Victory (1995) .... Mr. Jones
... aka Victory (France)
The Jungle Book (1994) .... Colonel Geofferey Brydon
... aka Libro de la selva, El (USA: Spanish title)
... aka Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) .... John Trent
... aka John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (USA: complete title)
Sirens (1994) .... Norman Lindsay
Country Life (1994) .... Dr. Max Askey
Jurassic Park (1993) .... Dr. Alan Grant
... aka JP (USA: promotional abbreviation)
The Piano (1993) .... Alisdair Stewart
... aka Leçon de piano, La (France)
Family Pictures (1993) (TV) .... David Eberlin
Hostage (1993) .... John Rennie
... aka Próximo enemigo, El (Argentina)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) .... David Jenkins
... aka Aventures d'un homme invisible, Les (France)
The Rainbow Warrior (1992) .... Alan Galbraith
... aka The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior
One Against the Wind (1991) (TV) .... Major James Leggatt, The Guards
Bis ans Ende der Welt (1991) .... Eugene Fitzpatrick
... aka Until the End of the World (UK) (USA)
... aka Jusqu'au bout du monde (France)
Fever (1991/I) (TV) .... Elliott
Death in Brunswick (1991) .... Carl Fitzgerald aka cookie
... aka Nothing to Lose
Shadow of China (1990) (as John Dermot) .... TV reporter
... aka China Shadow (Japan: English title)
The Hunt for Red October (1990) .... Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin

Révolution française, La (1989) .... Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert Motier, marquis De La Fayette
... aka Französische Revolution, Die (West Germany)
... aka The French Revolution
Dead Calm (1989) .... John Ingram
... aka Dead Calm: A Voyage Into Fear (USA: poster title)
A Cry in the Dark (1988) .... Michael Chamberlain
... aka Evil Angels (Australia)
Leap of Faith (1988) (TV) .... Oscar Ogg
... aka Question of Faith
The Good Wife (1987) .... Neville Gifford
... aka Peter Kenna's The Good Wife
... aka The Umbrella Woman
... aka Who's Zoomin Who (USA)
"Amerika" (1987) (mini) TV Series .... Colonel Andrei Denisov
For Love Alone (1986) .... James Quick
Strong Medicine (1986) (TV) .... Vince Lord
... aka Arthur Hailey's 'Strong Medicine'
"Kane & Abel" (1985) (mini) TV Series .... William Lowell Kane
Plenty (1985) .... Lazar
Robbery Under Arms (1985) (TV) .... Capt. Starlight
... aka Robo a Mano Armado
Sang des autres, Le (1984) .... Bergman
... aka The Blood of Others (USA)
The Country Girls (1984) (TV) .... Mr. Gentleman
"Reilly: The Ace of Spies" (1983) (mini) TV Series .... Sidney Reilly (Sigmund Rosenblum)
... aka Reilly: Ace of Spies (USA)
Enigma (1983) .... Dimitri Vasilikov
Ivanhoe (1982) (TV) .... Brian de Bois-Guilbert
Attack Force Z (1982) .... Sergeant D.J. (Danny) Costello
... aka The Z Men
... aka Z-tzu te kung tui (Taiwan)
From a Far Country (1981) .... Marian
... aka Da un paese lontano (Italy)
... aka From a Far Country: Pope John Paul II
... aka Z dalekiego kraju (Poland)
Possession (1981) .... Mark
The Final Conflict (1981) .... Damien Thorn
... aka Omen III: The Final Conflict
"The Sullivans" (1976) TV Series .... Ben Dawson (1980)
Lucinda Brayford (1980) .... Tony Duff

My Brilliant Career (1979) .... Harry Beecham
The Journalist (1979) .... Rex
Just Out of Reach (1979) .... Mike
Sleeping Dogs (1977) .... Smith
Ashes (1975) .... Priest
Landfall (1975) .... Eric