‘Succession’ Actress Hospitalized After Unusual Attack

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Actress Crystal Finn is probably best known for her role on the final season of the HBO series “Succession.” She has also worked on TV series including “The Tick,” “Staging Film” and “My America.”

In July 2023, Finn was hospitalized after a scary experience she had when she went swimming in Northern California. She was swimming in Feather River which is near Plumas National Forest. Then, all at once, she suddenly felt something biting her. 

Finn told the San Francisco Chronicle, “I felt something on my backside and on my leg.” She added, “I started looking around and yelling out.”

Then, Finn saw what was attacking her – otters! After she started yelling, the otters “popped up right in front of me. Then they dove down and started going at me again.”

In total, there were three otters that attacked Finn. She guesses that they are related, perhaps a mother and two of her babies. Finn had to climb onto a rock in order to get away from them. She said, “I could see the bites on my legs and knew I had been bitten on my butt — that one was the worst, but I couldn’t see it.”

Finn was hospitalized for the otter bites at Tahoe Forest Hospital, and while otter attacks are extremely rare, she was not the only otter victim in July. The same hospital had another patient who was admitted for otter bites within days of Finn.

Emergency room physician Dr. Martin Rosengreen explained, “After the first otter attack I thought, ‘Wow that was kind of special’ and then two days later there was another one.”

“Special” is probably not the word Finn would use to describe how she felt about the otter attack, but if we’re considering otter victims “special,” then three women in Montana can consider themselves “special” as well. In addition, multiple surfers in Santa Cruz have had their boards attacked by an otter.

The other otter victim Rosengreen treated had even more severe injuries than Finn. Rosengreen explained that this victim had about 15 to 20 bites. He explained, “She was out swimming in the middle of a lake and noticed something brush up on her leg.” He added, “Then, all of a sudden they started attacking, and she was trying to fend them off and swim away from them at the same time.” 

According to the Daily Montanan, there have only been 59 documented cases of otter attacks since 1875 in the entire world. Now, there were five just this summer.

Did you know otters could be dangerous?