Did I Ever Tell You This? by Sam Neill (2022) is the memoir of Irish-born New Zealander Sam Neill, known for his acting roles in the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark , the 1993 film The Piano , the Jurassic Park movies (1993-2022) and the television series Peaky Blinders (2013-2022). Sam Neill – real name Nigel – begins by saying that he has been sitting in trailers for much of his life, waiting for the film action to begin. His unexpected film career was not a result of a childhood dream, undying ambition, nor forward planning. His family left Northern Ireland for the promised land of New Zealand – as far away from Ireland as you get on this planet – when Sam was seven years old in 1954. At 11, in boarding school, he changed his name to Sam: “probably the best decision I made in my life.” His boarding school years led to a love of acting at a time when there was no film industry in New Zealand. He recalls tales of his early career, where “Life, I think, is often as much ab