Sam Neill’s cause of death was pneumonia, his longtime representative has revealed.

The 78-year-old actor’s death was announced on Monday in a statement shared on his Instagram account. Neill had only recently revealed he was cancer-free after being diagnosed with stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, in 2022.

In a statement on Thursday, Neill’s representative Philip Grenz said he was revealing Neill’s cause of death after speaking with his family due to “inaccuracies and outright falsehoods” in media reporting.

“Sam passed away from pneumonia. Prior to becoming sick, Sam had valiantly fought and beaten lymphoma through a new treatment called CAR-T therapy. In addition to running his award-winning winery, Two Paddocks, Sam had filmed four projects back-to-back during the past year, all of which will be released within the coming months,” Grenz said.

He described Neill as “an intensely private man who loathed a fuss”, which was why his funeral will be a private memorial held at his farm in New Zealand on an undetermined date.

“I’d like to thank those who were truly close to Sam for considering his privacy with the respect he earned and his loved ones need and deserve during this immeasurably difficult time,” Grenz said.

Fans who want to honour Neill’s memory were directed to make donations to “one of the causes he cared about most deeply”: the Dunstan Hospital Foundation in Central Otago, where Neill lived; the Snowdome Foundation, a non-profit Neill was campaigning with at his time of death, to improve access to blood cancer treatments including CAR-T therapy in Australia and New Zealand; and any New Zealand charities working to protect the local environment and wildlife.

More to come