Happy 60th Birthday Sam Neill

Before Anna Paquin, Lucy Lawless and Russell Crowe, this gentleman was probably the most famous actor from New Zealand for two decades. Admittedly, playing Damien in Omen III: The Final Conflict wasn’t a terrific start but he hit my personal radar with the British miniseries Reilly: Ace of Spies on PBS. I was originally intrigued by the show when I heard that Reilly was a real person and a major inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond character. As the years went by, you’d see Sam appearing in bit parts through the Eighties (including the horrendous Reagan propaganda piece Amerika) until he made it big in The Hunt for Red October as Sean Connery’s second in command. Then he probably became more of a household name through Jurassic Park. My favorite of his is The Piano which is also a showcase of his home country. Oddly, he didn’t appear in any of The Lord of the Rings flicks. In honor of his birthday though, I am going to try to hunt down a recent Aussie movie he appeared in called Dirty Deeds. It also stars John Goodman (yeah, the dude from Roseanne), Bryan Brown and Toni Collette. Set in Sydney around the Sixties, the American-based mafia is reaching out to invest elsewhere so the Aussie criminals can either join them or step aside. Neill plays a dirty cop who turns a blind eye to Brown’s activities. It was on Dish a couple years ago yet I never saw how it ended as I caught it in the middle.