Sam Neill is struggling with a rare cancer, but... he is not interested in it. "It's beyond my control."

The famous Dr. Alan Grant from "Jurassic Park" confessed that he is ready to leave this world. In March of this year, the 76-year-old actor spoke for the first time about his struggle with a rare cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Now he admits that he is not afraid of death. He is only terrified of retirement.

Since early last year when Neill received a terrible diagnosis, he has already been through hell. After about three months of chemotherapy, it turned out that the drugs stopped working, and the disease was progressing. Then, the doctors decided to use a rare anti-cancer drug.

Since last Christmas, they've been in remission, but require biweekly infusions. They know, however, that at some point this treatment will become ineffective. But they are prepared for that.

Born in Northern Ireland, the actor has no plans to give up. He still has a lot to do and doesn't want to allow himself to sink into melancholy reflections. For this reason, he went to Western Australia, where he worked on the second season of the miniseries "Twelve", and returned to the set of adaptions of Liane Moriarty's novel "Apples Never Fall". The filming took place in Gold Coast, and he was accompanied by Annette Bening. However, this production was halted due to the strike of American actors and screenwriters.

The illness prompted Neill to reflect on his entire life. Over a few months, he wrote a self-deprecating, yet uplifting book titled "Did I Ever Tell You This?".

It describes his emigration from Ireland to New Zealand, changing his name from Nigel to Sam, his love for Australia, and his family, and the joy of tending to his own vineyard. The actor's novel is also a collection of funny stories gathered over more than four decades of being a world-famous actor.

He wrote it primarily with his children and grandchildren in mind. - I thought it would be great if they knew a few of my stories - he said in a conversation with Australian Story. - I might not be here in a month or two. We'll leave something for them.

Throughout his long career, which officially began in 1979 after his role alongside Judy Davis in Gillian Armstrong's "My Brilliant Career," Neill was a very busy actor. Nearly every year brought at least one production featuring him.

Neill acted with the best: Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern in "Jurassic Park", Meryl Streep in "Cry in the Dark" (it's his only role appreciated with a statuette, for which he received the AFI Award given by the Australian Film Institute), Nicole Kidman in "Dead Calm" and Sean Connery in "The Hunt for Red October".

In his filmography, there was also a Polish note: Neill collaborated with Andrzej Zulawski on "Possession", in which he starred alongside Isabelle Adjani.