Actor Sam Neill was suffering from pneumonia before his sudden death Monday at age 78, according to a former colleague Tuesday, as some of Hollywood's biggest stars mourned the star of the "Jurassic Park" film series.

Neill died in Australia on Monday, according to a statement from his family that described the death as "sudden and unexpected."

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The New Zealand actor had undergone treatment for lymphoma over the past few years, but announced this year that he was cancer-free, according to his family, without giving details on the cause of his death. New Zealand actress Rima Te Wiata, who co-starred with Neill in the widely acclaimed local comedy "Hunt for the Wilderpeople," said her friend was not afraid of death but would have been "annoyed." She told the New Zealand Herald, "It's really, really sad, actually," adding, "I think he would have been like, for goodness sake, I've recovered from cancer. And now I've got pneumonia? What next."

Te Wiata did not provide any further details, and it was not clear exactly when Neill contracted pneumonia.

Memories of cancer

In his memoirs published in 2023, Neill revealed he was "possibly dying" after being diagnosed with stage three lymphoma. But he announced this year that he was cancer-free thanks to gene therapy that helped modify his immune system. Neill was born in Northern Ireland as Nigel John Dermot in 1947 but moved to New Zealand as a child. In the early 1970s, he began acting in New Zealand films before moving to larger roles in Australia. His global breakthrough came in 1993 when he played Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg's famous film "Jurassic Park." Over a decades-long career, he appeared in dozens of television and film works, including "Peaky Blinders," "The Hunt for Red October," and two additional installments of the "Jurassic Park" series.