Did
I Ever Tell You This? By Sam Neill. Memoir.
New Zealand actor Sam Neill tells the reader more than
once in his graceful and hugely entertaining memoir that he is ‘a jobbing
actor’: he will say that he does it to
feed himself and his family, about whom he is always loving and touchingly
proud. It soon becomes obvious to the
reader, however, that while he has more than earned enough to put food on the
table for family generations to come, he has also gained a world-wide
reputation as a celebrated actor in a myriad different roles, from battling
dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park movies to dazzling 17th century
London as King Charles the Second.
And he is also battling cancer.
About which he writes baldly and bravely, with no trace
of the ‘Poor-Me’s’, an indication of his upbringing in a loving but no-nonsense
family. Sam, baptised Nigel to his
eternal regret after his birth in Ireland, was the second son of a New Zealand
military officer (‘your father,’ says an
aunt in pointed reference to Sam. ‘Now he
was a handsome man.’) As proven by
an absolutely stunning photo of Sam’s dad.
Sam’s mum was an equally photogenic young Englishwoman and, after
producing daughter Juliet, the family eventually moved to Dunedin after a
wonderful, wild start in Ireland, and Sam was despatched to the delights of
boarding school in Christchurch. Whether
he wanted to go or not – ‘nothing wrong with a Boarding-School education, it’ll
do you good!’ Or not. As Sam was more
academically inclined than sporty (he loved acting, surprise surprise!) he
wasn’t regarded with great interest by his teachers. But.
Fate intervenes, when after university Sam gets a job
with the National Film Unit (‘New Zealand’s least cool film makers’) and he is
eventually cast in ‘Sleeping Dogs’, a pioneering feature movie that interested
people in Australia, and was the start
of His Brilliant Career. Sam and the
camera fell in love and have been thicker than thieves ever since. Only his family is more well-loved than
acting – and wine-making: thanks to his
superior ‘jobbing’ talents, Sam is also a vintner of some note – the Pinot Noir
produced at Sam’s South Island Two Paddocks vineyard has an international
reputation: not bad for a weedy little
kid called Nigel – who changed his name to Sam when he was small because all
the best guys in cowboy movies were called Sam.
The last word shall go to Sam’s little daughter Elena who
visited him in his trailer when he was upholstered magnificently in his royal
raiment as King Charles the Second: Sam
was waiting for her cries of admiration but all Elena could say was ‘but Daddy,
where are the Dinosaurs?’ This was the perfect way to end a lovely book written
by a gentleman, and a gentle man. SIX STARS.
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