Quotes
 I allow myself to be understood as a colorful fragment in a drab world. I felt like an impostor, taking all that money for reciting ten or twelve lines of nonsense a day.
I`ve made six or seven good films - the others, not so good.
My job is to defy the normal.
Women won`t let me stay single, and I won`t let myself stay married.
I can`t reconcile my gross habits with my net income.
I do what I like.
I intend to live the first half of my life. I don`t care about the rest.
I like my whiskey old and my women young.
If I have any genius it is a genius for living.
It isn`t what they say about you, it`s what they whisper.
The public has always expected me to be a playboy, and a decent chap never lets his public down.
They`ve great respect for the dead in Hollywood, but none for the living.
You once liked the blissful mobility, but then you wonder, who`s the real you? And who`s the chap on the screen? You know, I catch myself acting out my life like a goddamn script.
[last words] I`ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I`ve enjoyed every minute of it.
Trivia
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-lauded performance in The Sun Also Rises. We are then told that the nomination "disappeared".
In his final years he suffered from Buerger`s disease, acute inflammation and thrombosis (clotting) of arteries and veins of the legs, hands and feet as a result of his excessive cigarette smoking.
The underlying causes of his death were myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, coronary atherosclerosis, liver degeneration, liver sclerosis and diverticulitis of the colon.
Though Flynn did most of his own stunts in Against All Flags (1952), he balked at the one involving sliding down through a sail on a rapier blade, which was originated by Douglas Fairbanks in The Black Pirate (1926); it was performed by a stunt double.
A chain smoker, in the last year of his life, he underwent hospital tests to see whether he had throat cancer.
Became seriously ill with liver failure in the mid-1950s.
Had a vasectomy in 1955.
He was considered for Leslie Howard`s role in Gone with the Wind (1939). He was also allegedly considered for the role of Rhett Butler, but Bette Davis (who was to play Scarlett O`Hara) vetoed the idea.
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 in question has appeared at least twice on Turner Classic Movies during Errol Flynn festivals despite his very limited (certainly less than two minutes) screen time.
In the early days of establishing his Hollywood career, he passed himself off as Irish in the belief that few people knew of Australia. He was born, educated and began work in Australia, later drifting between Papua New Guinea and Sydney (rumoured to have been a fighter for PNG) before stumbling on to acting. The Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) captured some attention for him in the States and so, owing enormous debts to the Australian Taxation Office, he moved to America. He said to the ATO, "I`m willing to forget if you are.".
In the last two years of his life Flynn caused a scandal by touring the world with his teenage mistress Beverly Aadland working as his secretary.
Nearly died from food poisoning after eating uncooked ground hamburger meat mixed with raw egg yolk early in 1959.
Once stated that his only regret was his non-participation in World War II.
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".
Although only fifty when he succumbed to a massive heart attack aboard the yacht that had become his home during his final years, the autopsy showed he had the body of a seventy-five-year-old man.
Although they made some of their best pictures together, he despised director Michael Curtiz and the two fought constantly whenever they worked together. Ironically his first wife, Lili Damita was previously briefly married to the director.
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.
He also found success as a writer. He authored two novels, several articles, and an autobiography, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways".
He and Olivia de Havilland acted together in 9 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 granted a 4-F deferment during World War II due to his weak heart, exacerbated by bouts of malaria and tuberculosis. During the filming of Gentleman Jim (1942) Flynn suffered a mild heart attack.
His mother had Polinesian ancestry, from Tahiti, through her four great-grandmothers, since the mutineers of HMS Bounty came with Tahitian women to Pitcairn Island, where they had issue (estimated in 55 people living in 2005).
In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story," in which he alleged that he 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 in 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 supporter of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War and of the Cuban Revolution, 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 Fidel Castro and considered him a personal friend.
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.
Warner Brothers` publicity department tried to claim that he was from Ireland, when he was in fact from Tasmania, the small island state of Australia.
He is considered one of the greatest movie swashbucklers of the sound period.
He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian, whom he portrayed in the film In the Wake of the Bounty (1933). He was also the 23rd great-grandson of Robert De Vere (the real "Robin Hood"), whom he also portrayed in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). In addition, he is the 15th cousin twice removed of Olivia de Havilland, who played Maid Marian, his love interest, in that same film.
His father was head of Zoology at the University of Tasmania.
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."
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, in the Garden of Everlasting Peace.
It has been said that his 1959 autobiography, "My Wicked Wicked Ways," was originally to be called "In Like Me."
On his mother`s side, he was a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian and Edward Young, of H.M.S. Bounty fame.
The phrase "In like Flynn," stems from his 1942 trial for statutory rape.
Was tried for statutory rape in 1942 but was acquitted.
When banned from drinking on a film set, he would inject oranges with vodka and eat them during his breaks.
|
Gold Sites
Silver Sites
Comments
Submit a Comment