It must not be easy dealing with an aggressive cancer diagnosis, and living your life in the public eye when it happens can be an added, unwanted, distraction.
Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill, New Zealand raised though Omagh-born, is one of those rare movie stars who has a ‘life’ away from the limelight.
Having tried the lifestyle in LA, it wasn’t for him or his family.
“I can go to Starbucks, no one bugs me. I tell them my name. They don’t know me. I farm, I grow wine, and that keeps me sane,” he said.
He has opened up about his cancer diagnosis and how he is content to be an ‘actor’ rather than a ‘celebrity’.
But the big roles keep on coming for the now 76-year-old.
And for someone who’s most famous for sharing the screen with Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs, his outlook on life (“I didn’t know how long I had to live”) is refreshing in a Holywood showbiz world that craves celebrity over talent.
Sometimes, talent can trump celebrity.