Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Errol Flynn

This image shows a photograph of Errol Flynn, taken in ca. 1940. Under Australian law, all photographs taken in Australia before 1955 are in the public domain. This image is in the public domain under both Australian copyright law and US copyright law. Photo unattributed – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn, in full Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn, (born June 20, 1909, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia—died October 14, 1959, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), was an Australian actor who was celebrated as the screen’s foremost swashbuckler.

Flynn was the son of a prominent Australian marine biologist and zoologist. As such, he was sent to the best schools available—and was expelled from virtually all of them. Flynn’s restless, rebellious nature carried over into his early adulthood.

1. Errol was a shipping clerk in Sydney before traveling to Papua New Guinea

Enid Lyons and Errol Flynn. Participants at the 1918 Queen Carnival in Hobart, Tasmania, including Enid Lyons (center) as “Queen of the Public Service” and a young Errol Flynn (right) as one of her page boys. Photo by Museum of Australian Democracy – Wikimedia Commons

 He was a shipping clerk in Sydney before traveling to Papua New Guinea, where he worked as a plantation overseer and gold miner.

In 1933 an Australian film producer saw photographs of Flynn and offered the ruggedly handsome 24-year-old the role of the mutineer Fletcher Christian in the semidocumentary feature In the Wake of the Bounty.

2. He was encouraged by his experience to pursue acting as a career

Cropped a screenshot of Errol Flynn from the trailer for the film Captain Blood. Photo unattributed of a Trailer screenshot – Wikimedia Commons

 Encouraged by this experience to pursue acting as a career, Flynn joined England’s Northampton Repertory Company, which led to a few roles in British films and ultimately to a contract with Warner Bros in Hollywood.

 When Robert Donat dropped out of the title role in the expensive adventure film Captain Blood (1935), Warner took a chance on Flynn, thereby assuring stardom for him. The film also featured newcomer Olivia de Haviland, and the two actors subsequently made several popular films together.

3. Flynn went on to star in such colorful costume dramas as The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

Cropped screenshot of Errol Flynn from the film The Charge of the Light Brigade. Photo unattributed of a Trailer screenshot – Wikimedia Commons

Typecast as a dashing fearless adventurer, Flynn went on to star in such colorful costume dramas as The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), and The Sea Hawk (1940).

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) was arguably his most successful film and the one for which he is best known. Flynn also appeared in such big-budget westerns as Dodge City (1939), and Santa Fe Trail (1940), and they died with their boots on (1941), and he portrayed boxer James J. Corbett in Gentleman Jim (1942).

4. He was unable to serve in World War II because of various physical ailments

Errol Flynn em The New Adventures of Don Juan Gabriel Dorneles Private Collection. Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures – Wikimedia Commons

Unable to serve in World War II because of various physical ailments, he instead acted the part of a soldier in several films, including Desperate Journey (1942) and Objective, Burma (1945).

Almost as soon as he arrived in Hollywood, Flynn established a reputation as an irrepressible drinker, carouser, and womanizer.

5. Errol’s image was severely tarnished after he was charged with the statutory rape of teenage girls

Scena Muda v.20, n.1034, 1941 – Errol Flynn. Photo by A Scena Muda – Wikimedia Commons

 In 1942 he was charged with the statutory rape of teenage girls, but he was acquitted as a result of the flamboyant legal maneuvers of his attorneys. Nevertheless, his image was severely tarnished. Inevitably, his self-indulgence caught up with him.

 In his later Hollywood films, he appeared haggard, distracted, and far older than his years. He also lost a great deal of money in a variety of ill-advised business ventures and headed to Europe in hopes of revitalizing his career. Films from this period include The Master of Ballantrae (1953) and The Warriors (1955).

6. He enjoyed a brief resurgence of movie popularity with his brilliant performances in various films

Errol Flynn in the American western film Virginia City (1940). See also film still. No copyright notice. Photo by Warner Bros – Wikimedia Commons

Returning to America in 1956, he enjoyed a brief resurgence of movie popularity with his brilliant performances in The Sun Also Rises (1957), The Roots of Heaven (1958), and Too Much, Too Soon (1958). In these films, he played a wasted self-destructive drunkard, and some critics suggested that he was not acting.

7. He wrote a remarkably candid autobiography

He also hosted an Anglo-American television anthology, The Errol Flynn Theater (1956–57), the nature of which allowed him to display a hitherto untapped versatility.

He wrote a remarkably candid (if often wildly inaccurate) autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1959), and made a cheaply filmed paean to Fidel Castro, Cuban Rebel Girls (1959), which was his last movie.

8. He had been married three times and was the father of four

Errol Flynn and Beverly Aadland. Photo by Modern Screen – Wikimedia Commons

Despite popular artistic representation, rain does not fall from the sky shaped like teardrops; raindrops resemble hamburger buns.

In poor health after years of hard living, Flynn died at the age of 50. He had been married three times and was the father of four. His son, Sean, was a photojournalist who disappeared in 1970 while covering the war in Southeast Asia.

Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel was making a film about the mutiny on the Bounty, In the Wake of the Bounty (1933), a combination of dramatic re-enactments of the mutiny and a documentary on present-day Pitcairn Island.

Chauvel was looking for someone to play the role of Fletcher Christian. There are different stories about the way Flynn was cast. According to one, Chauvel saw his picture in an article about a yacht wreck involving Flynn.  

9. The most popular account is that he was discovered by cast member John Warwick

Cropped screenshot of Errol Flynn from the film That Forsyte Woman. Photo unattributed of a Trailer screenshot – Wikimedia Commons

The most popular account is that he was discovered by cast member John Warwick. The film was not a strong success at the box office, but Flynn was the lead role, and his fate was decided. In late 1933 he went to Britain to pursue a career in acting.

Flynn got work as an extra in a film, I Adore You 1933), produced by Irving Asher for Warner Bros. He soon secured a job with the Northampton Repertory Company at the town’s Royal Theatre (now part of Royal & Derngate, where he worked and received his training as a professional actor for seven months.

10. Northampton is home to an art-house cinema that was named after him

Northampton is home to an art-house cinema that was named after him, the Errol Flynn Film House, from 2013 to 2019. He performed at the 1934 Malvern Festival in Glasgow, and briefly in London’s West End.

In 1934 Flynn was dismissed from Northampton Rep. after he threw a female stage manager down a stairwell. He returned to London. Asher cast him as the lead in Murder at Monte Carlo, a “quota quickie” made by Warner Brothers at their Teddington Studios in Middlesex.

The movie was not widely seen (it is a lost film) but Asher was enthusiastic about Flynn’s performance and cabled Warner Bros in Hollywood, recommending him for a contract. Executives agreed and Flynn was sent to Los Angeles.