How Sam Neill’s Jurassic Park performance inspired a generation of paleontologists

The sudden death of actor Sam Neill has drawn tributes from an unexpected quarter: paleontologists around the world. As The Conversation reports, many in the field trace their careers to Neill's portrayal of Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Researchers from Montana to Melbourne describe Grant not as an eccentric genius but as an approachable, curious scientist doing fieldwork among dinosaurs — the first time many of them, as children, saw that being a paleontologist was a real job. British paleontologist Dean Lomax went so far as to call Grant perhaps the most influential paleontologist ever, while others recalled dressing as Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler on digs from Victoria to Mongolia. The scientists quoted suggest the film's most enduring legacy may be the generations of researchers it drew into the study of the prehistoric world.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton