Errol Flynn

He was voted the 26th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Errol Flynn was born to parents Theodore Flynn, a respected biologist, and Marrelle Young, an adventurous young woman. Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble. Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school he was enrolled in. In his late teens he set out to find gold, but instead found a series of short lived odd jobs. Information is sketchy, but the positions of police constable, sanitation engineer, treasure hunter, sheep castrator, shipmaster for hire, fisherman, and soldier seem to be among his more reputable career choices. Staying one jump ahead of the law and jealous husbands forced Flynn to England. He took up acting, a pastime he had previously stumbled into when asked to play (ironically) Fletcher Christian in a film called In the Wake of the Bounty (1933). Flynn's natural athletic talent and good looks attracted the attention of Warner Brothers and soon he was off to America.

In The Case of the Curious Bride (1935), one of his earliest films, his role consisted of lying on a marble slab as a corpse. There was also a flashback sequence towards the end of the film showing how Flynn was killed. The film has appeared at least twice on Turner Classic Movies during Flynn festivals despite his very limited (certainly less than two minutes) screen time.

He and Olivia de Havilland acted together in nine movies: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Dodge City (1939), Four's a Crowd (1938), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) and They Died with Their Boots On (1941).

He was considered for Leslie Howard's role in Gone with the Wind (1939). He was also at least nominally considered for the role of Rhett Butler, but GWTW producer David O. Selznick really wanted to cast Clark Gable all along.

Declaring to his second wife that he wanted to experience everything in life, he began dabbling in opium in the late 1940s and quickly became a full-fledged addict. His opium addiction and the effects of the alcohol that ravaged his body over the years contributed to his premature death in 1959 at only age 50.

Father, with Lili Damita, of photojournalist Sean Flynn (1941-70).

Was tried for statutory rape in 1942 but was acquitted, spawning the term "In Like Flynn".

Probably his most uncharacteristic screen appearance occurred in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) when he sang and danced his way through a pub number entitled "That's What You Jolly Well Get".

Father with Nora Eddington of Deirdre Flynn (born January 10, 1945) and Rory Flynn (born March 12, 1947).

Became seriously ill with liver failure in 1952 while filming The Story of William Tell (1953) in Rome.

Father, with Patrice Wymore, of Arnella (25 December 1953-21 September 1998).

He was voted the 55th Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Entertainment Weekly".

A recent Australian documentary on his life and career, narrated by Christopher Lee, included a film clip of Flynn being interviewed on his being nominated for the Academy Award for his critically acclaimed performance in The Sun Also Rises (1957). We are then told that the nomination "disappeared".

It has been said that his 1959 autobiography, "My Wicked Wicked Ways," was originally to be called "In Like Me."

In the last two years of his life he caused a scandal by touring the world with his 15-year-old mistress Beverly Aadland, who was working as his secretary. Their affair was the subject of a 1961 book by Beverly's mother Florence Aadland entitled "The Big Love", which describes how she intentionally pushed her daughter into the affair with Flynn. This affair is the subject of the movie The Last of Robin Hood (2013).

It was during a Parkinson (1971) interview that his good friend David Niven revealed that during the filming of The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Flynn was busy on a horse during a break applying makeup with one hand whilst holding a mirror in the other. An extra seeing this assumed (like most of the people around) that he was gay, and decided to "pock" the horse up the behind with his lance - the horse bucked, throwing Flynn to the ground. He got to his feet and asked who had done that, the extra volunteered, thinking that this would only add to his embarrassment. However, Flynn dragged him from the horse and gave him a sound beating. They were the best of friends after that.

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. In Disney's film The Rocketeer (1991), the major villain, Neville Sinclair, was a 1930s Hollywood actor who spied for the Nazis, an obvious reference to Higham's allegations about Flynn. The book also alleged he was bisexual and had affairs with Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes and Truman Capote. Subsequent biographies - notably Tony Thomas' "Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was" (1990) - have denounced Higham's claims as fabrications. Flynn's political beliefs appear to have been left-wing. He was a strong supporter of the Spanish Republic and a fervent opponent of ultra-conservative Gen. Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and was a supporter of Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba, even hosting a documentary titled The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution (1959) shortly before his death. According to his own posthumous autobiography, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways", he admired Castro and considered him a personal friend.

His son Sean Flynn appeared in a few films but didn't particularly like being an actor. He switched careers and was a freelance photojournalist during the Vietnam War. He disappeared with another journalist as they followed the US Army invasion into Cambodia and both were thought to have been captured and executed by Khmer Rouge guerrillas. He is the subject of the 1981 The Clash song, "Sean Flynn."

In 1995 he was chosen by "Empire" magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#86).

In October 1997 he was ranked #70 in "Empire" (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.

His mother had Polynesian ancestry, from Tahiti, through her four great-grandmothers--the mutineers of HMS Bounty sailed from Tahiti to Pitcairn Island, taking some Tahitian women with them. As of 2005, there were an estimated 55 descendants of the mutineers still living on Pitcairn.