Remembering the quiet genius of Sam Neill

I remember watching an interview with actor Sam Neill, who has died aged 78, saying “Good screen acting hints at secrets. At other lives underneath the veneer.” At the time, I wondered what were these secrets Neill was referring to. I just had to look at the vast body of Neill’s work, the characters he played, and how he played them to answer that question. Claiming him as Australian The actor was born Nigel John Dermot Neill in 1947 in Northern Ireland before moving to New Zealand as a…