Arabella Spotlight

Errol Flynn

1909 – 1959

…..a swashbuckling, seafaring rascal!

He was an adventurer, a rebel, a playboy and a rake…even before he played one on the silver screen. On the outside he lived every man’s dream…fast cars, fast boats and beautiful women. It was an image he cultivated every day of his life. But deep down inside him there was a lonely little boy who cried for the love he never had…the love he never learned to give…and no one ever heard him.

Errol at 3 years old

One of the screen’s most famous swashbucklers, he was born Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn on June 20 th, 1909 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. He would later drop the name Leslie because it belonged to a maternal uncle he detested. Errol’s father, Theodore Thomson Flynn, was a marine biologist who loved his son but by the nature of his work, spent a lot of time away from him. But he handed down to his son the love of the sea. Errol’s mother, Marelle (Mary Lilly) Young Thomson was a beautiful, independent woman who also spent a great deal of time away from her son. But when the two were together, their relationship was volatile. Both parents had extramarital affairs and the lifestyle young Errol observed then was one that he copied in his later life.

Errol was thrown out of every school he attended because, while he loved books, he regarded formal education unnecessary and school bored him. Finally, in his late teens, Errol left home to prospect for gold in New Guinea. During the 4 ½ years he spent that rugged country, he did a series of odd jobs and wrote of his adventures for a small Sydney newspaper. Spotting a picture of Errol in that paper, Charles Chauvel, an Australian filmmaker, persuaded him to take the role of Fletcher Christian in his picture “In the Wake of The Bounty”. In April, 1933 Errol left for England with fifty ounces of gold, smuggled diamonds (hidden in the handle of his shaving brush) and a bad case of malaria. It was to be an actor’s life for him!

as Fletcher Christian

as Captain Blood

He landed a job with the Northampton Repertory Theater where he learned stage basics and how to speak with an English accent. After 7 months, (when he had been fired for drunkenness) he did a screen test with the Warner Bros. agent in London and got the lead role in “Murder at Monte Carlo”. By November, 1924 Errol was on his way to Hollywood with a Warner Bros. contract

His big chance came in 1935 when Robert Donat, who hated the California climate, pleaded appendicitis and broke his Warner Bros. contract. The film role destined for Donat fell to the new boy on the block, Errol Flynn. It was the title role in “Captain Blood”, the role that made him famous. It was also his first movie with Olivia de Havilland with whom he would later have a brief affair and a much longer feud.

with Lili on the set of Robin Hood

Errol on his yacht in Rio

It was also the year Errol married the fiery actress, Lili Damita. Their marriage, marked by frequent and often violent fights, lasted on and off for the next 7 years but her financial hold on him would last a lifetime. Their son, Sean was born just one year before they finally divorced. In February of 1937, tired of the squabbles with Lili and looking for real instead of reel action, Errol ran away to the Spanish Civil War!

When he returned to Hollywood, Errol bunked with friends (notably David Niven) or found rentals around town. He never really “lived-in” with Lili or any of his wives after that. He bought a yacht he named “Sirocco” and then built a palatial home with 11 acres of prime real estate on Mulholland Drive. Impressed by his new digs, his friends nick-named him “The Baron”. He continued to play havoc with the studio morality clause but the names of some of his conquests kept them at bay….Ida Lupino, Joan Bennett, Lupe Velez, Ann Sheridan …. the list goes on.

But Errol’s expensive tastes in wine, women, yachts and real estate were soon getting him into hot water financially and his health was also suffering from the excesses. Army doctors found him medically unfit for service (eligible now that he had become a US citizen), The studio hushed it up and he was attacked in the press for being a coward. Rumors were also circulating about his sexual escapades. It seemed the older Errol became, the younger the women in his life.

Then, on October 11th, 1942, two policemen came to his door and told Errol he was under arrest on 3 counts of statutory rape. Two girls had come forward with stories of drugs and seduction aboard his yacht and both were underage. The grand jury had thrown out the case but the district attorney, for some reason, had overridden their decision. The trial lasted 4 weeks before Errol was acquitted on all counts. The evidence pointed to the fact that while one girl had certainly enjoyed several trysts on Flynn’s yacht before and after she reached the age of majority, the other girl’s story was fabrication. But the strain of the trial sent Errol into a depression that caused him to even consider suicide. Much later, it would be discovered that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI had him under surveillance since 1941 and even had Flynn’s phone tapped

Errol met his second wife, 19 year-old Nora Eddington, during the trial. She was working at the cigar counter in the courthouse. They were married in August, 1943 and the marriage lasted 5 years. But after 2 years, Nora was allowed to move into an apartment at Mulholland House where her daughters, Deirdre and Rory, has a very big backyard. Errol, on the other hand, spent their growing up years in Jamaica most of the time.

In 1948 Errol bought a new yacht, the Zaca and the 4,000 acre Boston Estate on the northeast coast of Jamaica as well as other tracts of land there. He brought his parents over to live on the newly acquired estate. He even became engaged to two women at the same time. He always felt the need for a wife to stabilize his life but not the need to live as a married man. He met Irene Ghika, a Romanian princess in Paris and, in November, 1949, they announced their engagement. Then he returned to Hollywood to do” Rocky Mountain” and met his co-star Patrice Wymore. Suddenly fiancée #1 went back to Paris and fiancée #2 took over. Patrice held out for a formal church wedding! For the first year of their marriage they lived together on the Zaca but soon Errol was living on the boat and Patrice was living on shore. Their daughter, Arnella, was born in Rome in 1953. Patrice and Errol separated in 1957 but were never divorced.

But he was declining in health rapidly during the last part of the decade. His career was also going south. Mickey Rooney said of him “He woke up one morning and he wasn’t Robin Hood any more…and it killed him”. He collapsed with hepatitis while filming a movie in January, 1953 and suffered from an arthritic spine that caused him tremendous pain. He increased his intake of drugs to compensate. He also found a new, very young mistress to make him feel as though he was still the same virile Errol. Her name was Beverly Aadland and she was only 15 years old.

Beverly went with Errol on location in Africa and to Cuba for “Cuban Rebel Girls” (she co-starred with him in this 68 minute semi-documentary). She was with him in Jamaica while he worked on his autobiography “My Wicked, Wicked Ways” (published posthumously after his death). In October. 1959, she accompanied Errol to Vancouver where he hoped to sell his beloved Zaca to keep it from IRS liens. So she was also there when he took ill and died on the floor of a doctor’s apartment of a massive heart attack. But Beverly Aadland was not asked to attend his funeral. Patrice Wymore took care of that.

Errol Flynn wanted to be buried under the oak tree on his Jamaica estate. But today he lies in Forest Lawn Cemetery’s Garden of Everlasting Peace under a statue of a girl with crossed arms. Lili and Nora did not attend the funeral nor did David Niven living at the time in Europe. Dennis Morgan sang Stevenson’s “Requiem” not at all the kind of song that said “Errol Flynn”. The star who loved playing jokes on others, was the butt of the biggest joke of all.

Cuban Rebel Girls

For more on Errol Flynn on screen and off please see Arabella’s Notes

For a list of my sources or other questions, e-mail me at mamalion27@aol.com

Filmography

In the Wake of the Bounty (1933)

I Adore You (1933)

Murder in Monte Carlo (1934)

The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)

Don’t Bet on Blondes (1935)

Captain Blood (1935)

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

Green Light (1937)

The Prince and the Pauper (1937)

Another Dawn (1937)

The Perfect Specimen (1937)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The Sisters (1938)

The Dawn Patrol (1938)

Dodge City (1939)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

Virginia City (1940)

The Sea Hawk (1940)

Santa Fe Trail (1940)

Footsteps in the Dark (1941)

Dive Bomber (1941)

They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

Desperate Journey (1942)

Gentleman Jim (1942)

Edge of Darkness (1943)

Northern Pursuit (1943)

Uncertain Glory (1944)

Objective Burma (1945)

San Antonio (1945)

Never Say Goodbye (1946)

Cry Wolf (1947)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Escape Me Never (1947)

Silver City (1948)

Adventures of Don Juan (1948)

It’s a Great Feeling (1949)

That Forsyte Woman (1949)

Montana (1950)

Rocky Mountain (1950)

Kim (1950)

Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951)

Hello, God (1951)

Mara Maru (1952)

Against All Flags (1952)

The Master of Ballantrae (1953)

Crossed Swords (1954)

William Tell (1953)

The Warriors (1955)

Let’s Make Up (1955)

King’s Rhapsody (1955)

Istanbul (1957)

The Big Boodle (1957)

The Sun Also Rises (1957)

Too Much, Too Soon (1958)

The Roots of Heaven (1958)

Cuban Rebel Girls (1959)