Best Known As: Swashbuckling movie star of the 1930s and '40s
Errol Flynn was one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1930s and '40s, the dynamic star of rousing adventures -- swashbucklers -- who was famous for his boundless energy and devil-may-care attitude. He spent his youth in Australia, England and New Guinea before appearing in his first movie in 1933, the Australian feature The Wake of the Bounty. From there he went to England briefly before being snapped up by Hollywood. In movies such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Flynn was the dashing hero whose winning smile and flashy swordplay made the ladies whimper with longing. Off screen Flynn had a reputation as a boozer, womanizer and all-around bad boy. Tongues wagged in 1942 when he was tried for statutory rape (and acquitted), but the scandal didn't diminish his celebrity or his popularity. He starred mostly in westerns, sea adventures and war movies, including The Charge of the Light Brigade (1935), They Died With Their Boots On (1941) and The Adventures of Don Juan (1948). Since his early death (at age 50) his private life has led to all kinds of speculation, from accusations that he was a Nazi sympathizer (later discredited) to lurid tales of his hedonistic sex life (who knows?).
Flynn worked frequently with director Michael Curtiz and actress Olivia de Havilland... His autobiography is titled My Wicked, Wicked Ways... The phrase "in like Flynn" became popular in the U.S. in the 1940s and is generally acknowledged as a reference to Flynn's success with women.
(born June 20, 1909, Hobart, Tas., Austl. — died Oct. 14, 1959, Vancouver, B.C., Can.) Australian-U.S. film actor. He sought adventure in New Guinea before turning to acting in Australia and England. In 1935 Warner Brothers brought him to Hollywood, and he became an instant success as the swashbuckling hero of Captain Blood. He continued to play dashing heroes through the 1940s in films such as The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), and Gentleman Jim (1942). After a period marred by scandal and bad roles, he returned to critical and popular praise in The Sun Also Rises (1957).
Died: Oct 14, 1959 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation: Actor, Writer
Active: '30s-'50s
Major Genres: Drama, Adventure
Career Highlights: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Objective, Burma!, Gentleman Jim
First Major Screen Credit: In the Wake of the Bounty (1933)
Biography
Athletic, dashing, and heroic onscreen, and a notorious bon vivant in his personal life, Errol Flynn ranked among Hollywood's most popular and highly paid stars from the mid-'30s through the early '40s, and his costume adventures thrilled audiences around the world. Unfortunately, a combination of hard-living, bad financial investments, and scandal brought Flynn's career to a tragic end in 1959.
He was born on the isle of Tasmania, the son of distinguished Australian marine biologist/zoologist Prof. Theodore Thomson Flynn. In school, Flynn was more drawn to athletics than academics and he was expelled from a number of exclusive Australian and British schools. At age 15, he found work as a shipping clerk in Sydney, and the following year he sailed to New Guinea to work in the government service, but the daily grind proved not to the adventuresome Flynn's taste, so he took off to prospect for gold. In 1930, Flynn returned to Sydney and purchased a boat, and he and three friends embarked upon a seven-month voyage to New Guinea. Upon arrival, Flynn became the overseer of a tobacco plantation and also wrote a column for the Sydney Bulletin.
Flynn's introduction to acting came via an Australian film producer who happened to see photographs of the extraordinarily good-looking young man and had him cast as Fletcher Christian in the low-budget docudrama In the Wake of the Bounty (1933). After a year of stage repertory acting to hone his dramatic skills, Flynn headed to London for film work. Attaining a contract at Warner Bros. in 1935, Flynn languished in tiny parts until star Robert Donat suddenly dropped out of the big-budget swashbuckler Captain Blood (1935). The studio took a chance on Flynn, and the result was overnight stardom. It was also during this year that Flynn married actress Lili Damita. Although he'd make stabs at modern-dress dramas and light comedies, Flynn was most effective in period costume films, leading his men "into the Valley of Death" in Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), trading swordplay and sarcasm with Basil Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and even making the West safe for women and children in Dodge City (1939). At his romantic best onscreen, Flynn was king of the rouges, egotistically strutting before such damsels as Olivia de Havilland and Alexis Smith, arrogantly taunting them and secretly thrilling them with his sharp, often cynical wit and his muscular legs. But despite such rapscallion behavior, the ladies and his cohorts loved Flynn because, undisguised in his arresting blue eyes, they could see that he was a man of honor, passion, sincerity, and even a little vulnerability. Thus, an Errol Flynn adventure caused female fans to swoon and male fans to imagine themselves in his place.
By the early '40s, Flynn ranked among Warner Bros.' most popular and lucrative stars. It should come as no surprise that the actor, with his potent charisma and obvious zest for life onscreen, was no less a colorful character, albeit a less heroic one, offscreen. His antics with booze, young women, and brawling kept studio executives nervous, PR men busy, and fans titillated for years. In 1942, Flynn was brought up on statutory rape charges involving two teenage girls, but was acquitted. Such allegations could easily have destroyed a lesser star's career, but not in Flynn's case. Instead of finding his career in ruins, he found himself more popular than ever -- particularly with female fans. In fact, the matter inspired a new catch phrase: "In like Flynn." That same year, he divorced Damita. (The couple's son, actor Sean Flynn, a dead ringer for his father, worked as a photojournalist and war correspondent in Southeast Asia where he disappeared in 1970 and was presumed dead.)
But while Flynn's pictures continued to score at the box office, the actor, himself, was declining; already demoralized by his inability to fight in World War II due to a variety of health problems -- including recurring malaria, tuberculosis, and a bad heart -- Flynn's drinking and carousing increased, and, although he remained a loyal and good friend to his cronies, the actor's overall behavior became erratic. By the time he starred in The Adventures of Don Juan (1949) -- a role he could have done blindfolded ten years earlier -- Flynn was suffering from short-term memory loss and seemed unsure of himself. He divorced his second wife, Nora Eddington, in 1949 and the following year married actress Patrice Wymore. In 1952, Flynn appeared to have regained his former prowess (but for several injuries during production) in Against All Flags, but the success was short-lived. As his box-office appeal lessened and his debts grew larger, the increasingly bitter Flynn left for Europe to make a few films, including The Master of Ballantrae (1953) and Crossed Swords (1954). The latter was poorly received stateside, something Flynn blamed on the distributor's (United Artists) lack of promotion. The final blow for Flynn came when he lost his entire fortune on an ill-fated, never-completed attempt to film the story of William Tell. To cope with his pain and losses, Flynn took to the sea, sailing about for long periods in his 120-foot ocean-going sailboat, the Zaca.
Returning to Hollywood in 1956, Flynn made a final bid to recapture his earlier glory, offering excellent performances in The Sun Also Rises (1957), The Roots of Heaven (1958), and Too Much, Too Soon (1958). Ironically, in the latter film, Flynn played another self-destructive matinee idol, John Barrymore. Strapped for cash during this period, Flynn penned his memoirs, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, which were published after his death in 1959. It was Flynn's third book; the first two were Beam Ends (1937), a description of his voyage to New Guinea in the Scirocco, and Showdown (1946), a novel. His final film was the grade-Z Cuban Rebel Girls (1958), in which he appeared with his girlfriend at the time, 17-year-old Beverly Aadland. Four months after turning 50, Flynn's years of hard living caught up with him and he died of heart failure. According to the coroner's report, his body was so afflicted by various ailments that it looked as if it belonged to a much older man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Errol Leslie Flynn (20 June 1909[1] – 14 October 1959) was an Australianfilmactor, known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle.
Errol Flynn was born in Hobart, Tasmania, where his father, Theodore Thomson Flynn was a lecturer (1909), and professor (1911) of biology at the University of Tasmania (UTAS). His mother was born Lily Mary Young, however she dropped the first names 'Lily Mary' shortly after she was married, and changed her name to 'Marelle' instead.[2] Flynn described his mother's family as "seafaring folk,"[3] and this appears to be where his life-long interest in ships and the sea originated. Despite Errol's claims, the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the Bounty mutineers.[4][5] Married at St John'sChurch of England, Balmain North, Sydney, on 23 January, 1909,[6][7] both of his parents were native-born Australians of Irish, English and Scottish descent, with convict links to Tasmania long before Errol's birth.[4][8] Flynn went to Sydney, New South Wales in 1926, attending Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore School)[9] where he was the classmate of future Australian Prime Minister, John Gorton.[10] He was expelled for fighting and, allegedly, having sex with a school laundress.[11] He was also expelled from several other schools he attended in Tasmania. At the age of 20, he moved to New Guinea, where he bought a tobacco plantation, a business which failed. A copper mining venture in the hills near the Laloki Valley, behind the present national capital, Port Moresby, also failed.
In the early 1930s, Flynn left for the United Kingdom and, in 1933, snagged an acting job with the Northampton repertory company at the town's Royal Theatre, where he worked for seven months. He also performed at the 1934 Malvern Festival and in Glasgow and London's West End[12].
While Flynn acknowledged his attraction to her, film historian Rudy Behlmer's assertions that they were romantically involved during the filming of Robin Hood (see the Special Edition of Robin Hood on DVD, 2003) have been disputed by de Havilland. In an interview for Turner Classic Movies, she said that their relationship was platonic, mostly because Flynn was already married to Lili Damita. The Adventures of Robin Hood was Flynn's first film in Technicolor.
During the shooting of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Flynn and co-star Bette Davis quarrelled off-screen, causing Davis to allegedly strike him harder than necessary while filming a scene. Although their relationship was always strained, Warner Bros. co-starred them twice. Their off-screen relationship was later resolved. A contract was even drawn up to lend them out for the roles of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but that prospect failed to materialize.
Flynn was a member of the Hollywood Cricket Club with David Niven. His suave, debonair, and devil-may-care attitude toward both ladies and life has been immortalized in the English language by author Benjamin S. Johnson as, "Errolesque," in his treatise on the subject, An Errolesque Philosophy on Life.[11]
After America entered World War II, Flynn was often criticised for his failure to enlist while continuing to play war heroes in films. Flynn, in fact, had attempted to join every branch of the armed services, but was rejected for health reasons.[14] The studios' failure to counter the criticism was due to a desire to hide the state of Flynn's health. Not only did he have an enlarged heart, which had already resulted in at least one heart attack, but he also suffered from tuberculosis, a painful back (for which he self-medicated with morphine and later, with heroin), and recurrent bouts of malaria which he had contracted in New Guinea.
By the 1950s, Flynn had become a parody of himself. Heavy alcohol and drug abuse left him prematurely aged and bloated, but he won acclaim as a drunken ne'er-do-well in The Sun Also Rises (1957), and as his idol John Barrymore in Too Much Too Soon (1958). His autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, was published shortly after his death and contains humorous anecdotes about Hollywood. According to one literary critic, the book "remains one of the most compelling and appalling autobiographies written by a Hollywood star, or anyone else for that matter".[15] Flynn wanted to call the book In Like Me, but the publisher refused. In 1984, CBS produced a television film based on Flynn's autobiography, starring Duncan Regehr as Flynn.
Flynn starred in a 1956 anthology seriesThe Errol Flynn Theatre that was filmed in England where he presented the episodes and sometimes appeared in them.[16]
Flynn and Beverly Aadland met with Stanley Kubrick to discuss appearing together in Lolita.[17] His adventure novel Showdown, was published in 1946. His first book, Beam Ends was published in 1937.
Private life, family and death
Lifestyle
Flynn had a reputation for his womanizing, consumption of alcohol and brawling. His freewheeling, hedonistic lifestyle caught up with him in November 1942 when two under-age girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, accused him of statutory rape.[18] A group was organized to support Flynn, named the American Boys' Club for the Defense of Errol Flynn (ABCDEF); its members included William F. Buckley, Jr.[19] The trial took place in January and February 1943, and Flynn was cleared of the charges. The incident served to increase his reputation as a ladies' man, which led to the popular phrase "in like Flynn", the phrase being later parodied in the James Coburn comedy spy film In Like Flint.[20]
Marriages and family
Flynn and first wife Lili Damita at Los Angeles airport in 1941.
Flynn was married three times: to actress Lili Damita from 1935 until 1942 (one son, Sean Flynn, born 1941, died Cambodia, 1971); to Nora Eddington from 1943 until 1949 (two daughters, Deirdre born 1945 and Rory born 1947); and to actress Patrice Wymore from 1950 until his death (one daughter, Arnella Roma, 1953-1998). In Hollywood he tended to refer to himself as Irish rather than Australian (his father Theodore Thomson Flynn had been a biologist and a professor at the Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland during the latter part of his career). Flynn lived with Wymore in Port Antonio, Jamaica in the 1950s. He was largely responsible for developing tourism to this area, and for a while owned the Titchfield Hotel which was decorated by the artist Olga Lehmann. He also popularised trips down rivers on bamboo rafts.[21]
His only son, Sean, an actor and later a noted war correspondent, disappeared in Cambodia in 1970 during the Vietnam War while working as a freelance photojournalist for Time magazine;[22] he was presumed dead, etc. in 1971 by the Khmer Rouge. Officially declared dead in 1984, by his mother Lily and his only son, Randolph, now living in New York under a different name (Richmond Chandler, Chandler)and out of the spotlight, Sean's remains have never been discovered. Sean's life was recounted in Inherited Risk by Jeffrey Meyers (Simon & Schuster) and he is also mentioned on page 194 in the Colleagues section of Dispatches by Michael Herr. Flynn's daughter Rory has one son, Sean Rio Flynn, named after her half-brother. He is an actor.[23] Rory Flynn has written a book about her father entitled The Baron of Mulholland.
Errol Flynn's coffin on Los Angeles Union Station train platform in 1959.
Death
Flynn flew with Aadland to Vancouver on 9 October 1959, to lease his yacht Zaca to millionaire George Caldough. On 14 October, Caldough was driving Flynn to the airport when Flynn felt ill. He was taken to the apartment of Caldough's friend, Dr. Grant Gould, uncle of pianist Glenn Gould. A party ensued, with Flynn regaling guests with stories and impressions. Feeling ill again, he announced "I shall return" and retired to a bedroom to rest. A half hour later Aadland checked in on him and discovered him unconscious. Flynn had suffered a heart attack. According to the Vancouver Sun (16 December 2006), "When Errol Flynn came to town in 1959 for a week-long binge that ended with him dying in a West End apartment, his local friends propped him up at the Hotel Georgia lounge so that everyone would see him." The story is a myth; following Flynn's death, his body was turned over to a coroner who performed an autopsy, and released his body to his next of kin.
In 1961, mother Florence Aadland wrote The Big Love, a book detailing Flynn's sexual relationship with her 15-year-old daughter, Beverly.[24][25] It was later made into a play starring Tracey Ullman.[26][27]
In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story, in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathizer who spied for the Nazis before and during World War II.[28] The book also alleged he was bisexual, and had affairs with several men including Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes and Truman Capote.[28] That Flynn was bisexual was also claimed by David Bret in Errol Flynn: Satan's Angel, although Bret denounced the Nazi claims.
He was previously accused of sympathising with Hitler based on his association with Dr Hermann Erben, an Austrian who served in the German military intelligence. Declassified files held by the CIA show that, in an intercepted letter in September 1933, Flynn wrote to Erben: "A slimy Jew is trying to cheat me . . . I do wish we could bring Hitler over here to teach these Isaacs a thing or two. The bastards have absolutely no business probity or honour whatsoever."[29]
Subsequent biographies — notably Tony Thomas' Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel, 1990) and Buster Wiles' My Days With Errol Flynn: The Autobiography of a Stuntman (Roundtable, 1988) — have rejected Higham's claims as pure fabrication. Flynn's political leanings, say these biographies, appear to have been leftist: he was a supporter of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War and of the Cuban Revolution, even narrating a documentary titled Cuban Story[30] shortly before his death.[Need quotation on talk to verify] Flynn defended his visit to Cuba in an appearance on a Canadian Broadcasting Company television game show early in 1959. According to his autobiography, he considered Castro a close personal friend and drinking partner.
Film portrayals
Duncan Regehr portrayed Flynn in a 1985 American TV movie My Wicked, Wicked Ways, loosely based on Flynn's autobiography of the same name.
The character of film star Neville Sinclair, played by Timothy Dalton in the 1991 film The Rocketeer, was thought by many film critics to be loosely based on Flynn, although in one scene Flynn is specifically shown as a different person.[citation needed]
My Wicked, Wicked Ways, ghost-written by Earl Conrad (1959)
Posthumous cultural references
Phil Collins sings, "The trouble was started by a young Errol Flynn" in the Genesis song "Blood on the Rooftops" from the album Wind & Wuthering (1976).
The Australian rock band, Australian Crawl, in 1981 recorded an album titled Sirocco, which was named after Flynn's boat. The album contained the track, "Errol", which was released as a single.
Bob Dylan mentions "your fall by the sword love affair with Errol Flynn" in the song, "Foot of Pride," a song recorded for, but omitted from ""Infidels"" (1983).
British writer Geoff Nicholson published The Errol Flynn Novel in 1993, the main story-line of which concerns an attempt to make a film version of Flynn's life[32].
In June 2009 the Errol Flynn Society of Tasmania Inc organised the Errol Flynn Centenary Celebration, a 10-day series of events designed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth[33] On the actual centenary, 20 June 2009, his daughter Rory Flynn unveiled a star with his name on the footpath outside Hobart's heritage State Cinema.[34].
Tampa Bay Buccaneers will wear their throwback uniforms – complete with the “Bucco Bruce” helmet that featured the Errol Flynn-like winking pirate biting down on a dagger[35].
The play Out Like Flynn: A Seduction, A Hallucination, A Musical was written by Vancouver Actor/Playwright Jeff Gladstone and produced by fugue theatre in 2007[36]
His role in Four's a Crowd (1938) with Olivia de Havilland is referenced at the beginning of the movie Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008).
He is specifically cited by Mike Tyson in the biographical documentary titled "Tyson" (2008) as someone who Tyson read about vis-a-vis his adventurous lifestyle and sexual encounters with several women.
The Pirate's Daughter, a 2008 Australian novel by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, is a fictionalised account of Flynn's later life[37].
Flynn, Errol. My Wicked, Wicked Ways: the Autobiography of Errol Flynn. Intro. by Jeffrey Meyers. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2003. Rpt. of My Wicked, Wicked Ways. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons, 1959. ISBN 0-8154-1250-9.
