Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor, best known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III. He has also had a number of high-profile roles including the lead in Reilly, Ace of Spies, the adult Damien in Omen III: The Final Conflict, Merlin in the miniseries Merlin, Captain Vasily Borodin in The Hunt for Red October, Colonel Geoffrey Brydon in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, and Alistair Stewart in The Piano. In 2007 he played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in Showtime's The Tudors, and in 2012 began a starring role on the FOX drama Alcatraz. Neill was born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, the second son of Dermot Neill, a Harrow- and Sandhurst-educated army officer and third-generation New Zealander, and his English wife, Priscilla (née Ingham). At the time of Neill's birth, his father was stationed in Northern Ireland, serving with the Irish Guards. The Neills owned Neill and Co., the largest liquor retailers in New Zealand. In 1954, Neill returned with his family to New Zealand, where he attended the Anglican boys' boarding school Christ's College in Christchurch.