Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn c.1940
Birth name:	Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn
Date of birth:	June 20 1909(1909-06-20)
Birth location:	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Date of death:	October 14 1959 (aged 50)
Death location:	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Spouse:	Lili Damita) Nora Eddington) Patrice Wymore)

Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (June 20, 1909 – October 14, 1959) was an Australian film actor, writer, producer and director. He has become most famous for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle. He is remembered as one of Hollywood's legendary figures, having starred in over 60 movies during his short 50 years of life.

Early Life

Flynn was born in Hobart, Tasmania, to Marelle Young and Theodore Thomas Flynn. The family moved to Sydney, New South Wales when Flynn was a as a child. He loved the ocean. His father Theodore Thomson Flynn was a biologist and a professor at the Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland for the latter part of his career. Flynn was very athletic however did not excel at his studies. He was expelled from two private schools for fighting. When he turned twenty 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 Britain and got an acting job with Northampton Repertory Company, where he worked for seven months. He starred in the American-made film In the Wake of the Bounty directed by Charles Chucker in 1933. According to Gerry Connelly's Book Errol Flynn in Northampton, he also performed at the 1934 Malvern Festival, and also in Glasgow and in London's West End. He was discovered by a Warner Bros. executive, signed to a contract and shipped to America as a contract actor. In 1942, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Acting career

Flynn became an overnight sensation with his first starring role, Captain Blood, in 1935. He became typecast as a swashbuckler and made a host of such films, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Dawn Patrol (1938) with his close friend David Niven, Dodge City (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), and Adventures of Don Juan (1948).

Flynn played opposite Olivia de Havilland in eight films, including Captain Blood, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dodge City, Santa Fe Trail (1940), and They Died with their Boots On (1941). The Adventures of Robin Hood was Flynn's first in Technicolor.

Errol Flynn as Capt. Nelson in Operation Burma !

During the shooting of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Flynn and co-star Bette Davis had some legendary off-screen fights, with Davis striking him harder than necessary while filming a scene. Their relationship was always strained, but Warner Brothers teamed them up twice. Their off-screen relationship was later reconciled. A contract was even presented to lend them out as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind but the teaming failed to materialize.

Flynn won acclaim as a drunken ne'er-do-well in The Sun Also Rises (1957). His colorful autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, was published just months after his death and contains humorous anecdotes about Hollywood. Flynn wanted to call the book In Like Me, but the publisher refused. In 1984, CBS produced a television mini-series based on Flynn's autobiography, starring Duncan Regehr as Flynn.

In the 1950s, Flynn tried his hand as a novelist, penning the adventure novel Showdown, which was published in 1952.

Marriages

Flynn was married three times, to actress Lili Damita from 1935 until 1942 (one son, Sean Flynn); to Nora Eddington from 1943 until 1948 (two daughters, Deirdre and Rory); and to actress Patrice Wymore from 1950 until his death (one daughter, Arnella Roma). In Hollywood he tended to refer to himself as Irish rather than Australian. Flynn lived with Wymore in Port Antonio, Jamaica in the 1950s. He was largely responsible for developing tourism to this area, for a while owned the Titchfield Hotel, decorated by the artist Olga Lehmann, and popularized raft trips down rivers on bamboo rafts.

Later Life

Flynn decided to leave California in 1952 after purchasing a yacht named "Zaca" with his third wife. He had become bored with Hollywood and felt he was not being offered promising roles. The ocean made him feel comfortable and at home. In his later years he started writing. Flynn wrote the following books:

• Beam Ends (1937)
• Showdown (1946)
• My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1959)

While at a friend house, Flynn suffered a heart attack and died on October 14, 1959. He is interred in Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.

External links

• Errol Flynn at the National Film and Sound Archive
• Errol Flynn at the Internet Movie Database
• Map of where Errol died in Vancouver
• Profile for Errol Flynn at Find A Grave
• Errol Flynn on CBC's Front Page Challenge
• The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
• Wu Ming's "In Like Flynn" at Chicago Review
• Errol Flynn Resource Website Flynn resource website, filmography & photographs.
• Profile @ Turner Classic Movies

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Errol Flynn  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Errol Flynn"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.