WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Sam Neill, a smoothly elegant and versatile actor whose career moved from art film to blockbuster as he dodged velociraptors in “Jurassic Park” to playing Holly Hunter’s husband in “The Piano,” has died. He was 78.

In 2023, Neill disclosed he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Neill died on Monday in Sydney, according to a statement posted to the actor’s social media page.

His death was “sudden and unexpected,” the statement said, adding that he “remained cancer free” when he died. A cause of death wasn’t specified.

“Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life,” his family wrote.

Actor came to world’s notice with ‘Dead Calm’ and ‘My Brilliant Career’

Neill was one of a host of actors and directors who achieved international fame after an explosion of Australian films that began in the late 1970s, a list that includes Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, Jane Campion, Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong. His range was remarkable, playing opposite Helena Bonham Carter in the Alan Ayckbourn comedy “Sweet Revenge” to chopping off Hunter’s finger in “The Piano” to poking his own eyes out in the sci-fi horror “Event Horizon.”

In “Omen III: The Final Conflict,” he played Damien the Antichrist and he also played Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in “The Tudors.”

The actor first came to the attention of international audiences in Armstrong’s 1979 film “My Brilliant Career,” which also introduced Judy Davis. He later appeared in Phillip Noyce’s “Dead Calm,” a classy thriller set at sea and co-starring the then-relatively unknown Nicole Kidman.

Neill twice co-starred with Meryl Streep, in Australian director Fred Schepisi’s “Plenty” and — again for Schepisi — in “A Cry in the Dark,” a film about the sensationalized aftermath of a dingo killing a baby in the Australian Outback. He earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the 1998 miniseries “Merlin” and another as narrator of 2017’s “Wild New Zealand.”

The Huntington’s long-awaited stink has arrived. Two corpse flowers nicknamed Odora and Odorysseus have bloomed at the San Marino conservatory, drawing thousands for the rare occasion and quickly surpassing last year’s numbers.

Corpse flowers have been a staple of the Huntington since 1999, when the garden exhibited its first corpse flower. Native to Sumatra, Indonesia, these plants are endangered in the wild and only bloom for 24 to 48 hours every few years. Once bloomed, they reek of rotting flesh.

As the day goes on, these smelly specimens will close back up and collapse, losing their infamously rotten odor.

The double bloom this summer was “definitely a surprise,” said Brandon Tam, the Huntington’s associate curator of orchids. The last time multiple corpse flowers bloomed on the same day at the Huntington was in 2018.

“We knew that Odorysseus was going to bloom probably Sunday,” Tam said. “But what surprised us was that we saw that Odora was opening just a few hours after.”

As an “inflorescence” — a plant structure containing hundreds of male and female flowers at the base — the plant usually staggers its bloom to avoid self-pollination.

Jaime Holmes from San Gabriel holds her nose in front of the blooming corpse flowers.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Advertisement

But sometimes, “these plants have a mind of their own,” Tam said.

Climate factors can influence when they bloom. Tam said Southern California’s recent high humidity may have signaled a prime environment for the plants to unfurl.

Visitors may have noticed that Odorysseus’ spadix — the conic protrusion emerging upward from the plant — was much taller than Odora’s, which had caved in. Tam said Odora’s spadix was a developmental irregularity, but emphasized the plant remains healthy.

“It just looks a little different — completely normal,” Tam said. “When it reblooms for us in three to four years, it’ll look just perfectly fine.”

At the time of the bloom, Odorysseus measured 71 inches in height, and Odora measured 41.

As of 8:51 a.m., the Huntington recorded over 5,700 reservations, said Keisha Raines, the Huntington’s assistant director of news and media relations. That number easily surpassed last year’s bloom, which drew about 4,900 visitors. It also excludes walk-ins and any more reservations made throughout the day.

Parking lots quickly filled inside the Huntington, forcing some visitors to park on the streets outside.

Raines thinks the rare double bloom influenced the spike in reservations. She also believes general awareness of the corpse flower increases each summer.

“It’s kind of lore,” Raines said. “It’s just continuing to build, and more people want to see it.”

Inside the conservatory, eager sniffers took selfies and marveled at the plants’ size and smell. Outside, the line ran all throughout the walkways, extending past the exit.

Ventura resident Michelle Shock and her 8-year-old daughter, Fable, initially came to the Huntington for a tea party at the Rose Garden, and dressed for the part in light-colored, semi-formal dresses. They scheduled the party two weeks ago and got lucky when they heard the corpse flowers were in bloom on the same day.

“I’ve always wanted to see one,” Shock said while waiting in line. “I think the last time I knew of one blooming was when I was pregnant with her. We were up in the Bay, and I missed it. So here we are now, together, which is better.”

Gastonia Goodman, 72, peers through the window at the blooming corpse flowers.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Advertisement

Fable predicted the plants would smell like “rotten flesh from Minecraft.” Shock guessed they’d smell like forgotten meat in a broken freezer or animal remains on a farm.

For spouses Jennifer Kraus and Abigail Cruz, the plants smelled like rotten garbage.

“It was pretty ripe,” Kraus said. “Totally enjoyed it though.”

The couple drove two hours from the Inland Empire to catch the bloom, which had been on Cruz’s bucket list.

“The minute that we saw it on Facebook, [Kraus] started following it and making sure that we’re here when it had bloomed,” Cruz said.

They were among the first to arrive, so the wait was short. “We were here at o-dark-30 this morning, ready to go,” Kraus said.

North Hollywood resident Lilla Saito took two hours off work to witness the corpse flowers for the first time and tracked the livestream every day, “just waiting for it to bloom.” Saito stood in line for about 45 minutes to catch a whiff, which Saito said “smelled like a trash room.”

It was Paige Patino’s first bloom too. Patino lives 10 minutes away from the Huntington and wore a T-shirt with flowers on it for the occasion. It was “really cool” to “see both of them active,” Patino said.

For Tam, this year’s stench ranks in the top three. He thinks each individual plant stinks more than previous blooms, but on top of that, he said: “The fact that we have two in bloom makes it stinkier.”

Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning.

A dozen states, led by California, are suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation’s largest movie studios, television newsrooms, and other entertainment properties.

“The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement announcing the suit, which was filed in federal court in California’s Northern District.

The deal would give a wealthy family that has taken pains to show its allegiance to President Trump the effective ownership of the companies’ competing movie studios, streamers (Paramount+ and HBO Max), sports programming (CBS Sports and Turner Sports) and news divisions (CBS News and CNN) as well as a suite of cable channels, such as Comedy Central, VH1, MTV, TNT, TBS, HGTV and Discovery, among others.

The president has repeatedly praised Larry and David Ellison, the digital titan and his son who are the controlling owners of Paramount. And he has publicly urged the sale of Warner’s CNN to new owners.

“We’re trying to have CNN go in a normal path,” Trump told CNN anchor Jake Tapper yesterday at the end of an interview about the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

In his statement Monday, Bonta said, “With this lawsuit, California and our sister states are fighting for free and fair markets, not rigged markets. America has no kings in government or our economy.”

Paramount is inviting in sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as major investors who will forego voting rights. The financing proposal also envisions that the company will take on $80 billion in new debt. That will assuredly trigger major cuts throughout the combined company. Warner dramatically reduced its own debt after slashing budgets, but is still tens of billions of dollars in the red, which helped set the stage for Paramount’s unsolicited bid.

Bonta sees “red flags”

In late June, Bonta told MS NOW’s Jacob Sobroff that the deal presented “red flags in the air everywhere.” The acquisition is valued at approximately $111 billion, including debt and major (though nonvoting) investment stakes from Saudi and other sovereign wealth funds. Bonta has armed his office for potentially costly legal battles by hiring a new batch of lawyers, including some who left the U.S. Justice Department after Trump took office a second time. He also secured new funds from the state legislature specifically for antitrust enforcement.