Nicole Kidman paid tribute to her “friend for life” Sam Neill after his sudden death.
“He was one of the greats… A joy to be around. We met when I was just 18, and he took me under his wing and we stayed friends for life,” the actress told the Sydney Morning Herald in a statement Monday.
“He was charming, kind, funny, and intelligent. He will be greatly missed, and my heart goes out to his family.”
The duo, notably, starred together in the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm,” in which they played a married couple.
It was Kidman’s breakout performance that catapulted her to international stardom and launched her Hollywood career.
30 years after their performance in the film, Kidman and Neill reunited at a “Big Little Lies” panel in 2019.
The two were joined by Laura Dern who was Neill’s “Jurassic Park” co-star and Kidman’s co-star in the HBO show.
Neill’s family announced his death on Monday via Instagram.
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau [family] of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” the late actor’s loved ones penned.
“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” the statement continued. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”
His family went on to “express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care.”
They concluded, “More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
Neill’s passing comes just two months after he announced he was cancer-free following his battle with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma – a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
He had been forced to seek an alternative when doctors told him chemotherapy stopped working, so he took part in a trial for CAR T-cell therapy – a form of immunotherapy that trains T-cells to destroy cancer cells.
“I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing,” he told Australia’s 7News in April, reflecting on the success of his trial. “I’m very, very excited that this can happen. It’s time I did another movie.”
The beloved actor previously said he was “not remotely afraid” of dying as he battled cancer.
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