Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his playboy lifestyle.
He became a naturalized American citizen in 1942.
Errol Flynn was born in Hobart, Tasmania, where his father, Theodore Thomson Flynn, was a lecturer (1909) and later professor (1911) of biology at the University of Tasmania. Flynn was born at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Battery Point. His mother was born Lily Mary Young, but dropped the first names Lily Mary shortly after she was married and changed her name to Marelle. Flynn described his mother’s family as “seafaring folk” and this appears to be where his lifelong interest in boats and the sea originated. Despite Flynn’s claims, the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the Bounty mutineers. Married at St. John’s Church of England, Birchgrove, Sydney, New South Wales, on 23 January 1909, both of his parents were native-born Australians of Irish, English, and Scottish descent, with convict links to Tasmania long before Flynn’s birth.From 1923-1925 Flynn was in England receiving his education at South-West London College, a private boarding school in Barnes, London, however by 1926 he had returned to Australia and was living at Mclean Avenue Chatswood, Sydney, attending Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore School) where he was the classmate of future Australian Prime Minister, John Gorton. He was expelled from Sydney Grammar for fighting and, according to his own account, having been caught in a romantic assignation with the school’s laundress. He was also expelled from several other schools he had attended in Tasmania. At the age of 20 he moved to New Guinea where he bought a tobacco plantation, a business that 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 England, and in 1933 he secured an acting job with the Northampton repertory company at the town’s Royal Theatre (now part of Royal & Derngate), where he worked for seven months. Northampton’s new art-house cinema, the Errol Flynn Filmhouse, which will be joined to the Royal & Derngate complex, is named after him and is scheduled to open in June 2013. He also performed at the 1934 Malvern Festival and in Glasgow and London’s West End.
In 1933, he appeared in the Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty, directed by Charles Chauvel in the role of Fletcher Christian, and in 1934 appeared in Murder at Monte Carlo, produced at the Warner Bros. Teddington Studios in Middlesex, England. This latter film is now considered a lost film. During the filming of Murder at Monte Carlo, Flynn was discovered by a Warner Brothers executive, signed to a contract and emigrated to America as a contract actor. He became a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1942, eight months after America entered World War II.
Flynn was an overnight sensation in his first starring role,[17] Captain Blood (1935). Quickly typecast as a swashbuckler, he followed it with The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936). After his appearance as Miles Hendon in The Prince and the Pauper (1937), he was cast in his most celebrated role as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), his first film in Technicolor. He went on to appear in The Dawn Patrol (1938) with David Niven, Dodge City (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940) and Adventures of Don Juan (1948).
Working throughout his career with a cross section of Hollywood’s best fight arrangers, Flynn became noted for his fast-paced sword fights as seen in The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood.
Flynn co-starred with Olivia de Havilland in eight films: Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Four’s a Crowd (1938), Dodge City (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and They Died with Their Boots On (1941).
While Flynn acknowledged his attraction to de Havilland, film historian Rudy Behlmer’s assertions that they were romantically involved during the filming of Robin Hood (see the Special Edition of Robin Hood on DVD, 2003) have been disputed by de Havilland. In an interview for Turner Classic Movies, she said that their relationship was platonic, mostly because Flynn was already married to Lili Damita.
During the shooting of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Flynn and co-star Bette Davis quarrelled off-screen, causing Davis to allegedly strike him harder than necessary while filming a scene. Although their relationship was always strained, Warner Bros. co-starred them twice. Their off-screen relationship was later resolved. A contract was even drawn up to lend them out for the roles of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, but that prospect failed to materialise.
Flynn was a member of the Hollywood Cricket Club with David Niven. His suave, debonair, and devil-may-care attitude toward both ladies and life has been immortalised in the English language by author Benjamin S. Johnson as, “Errolesque,” in his treatise on the subject, An Errolesque Philosophy on Life.
As Capt. Nelson in Objective, Burma! (1945).
When Flynn became a naturalised American citizen on 15 August 1942, he also became eligible for the military draft, as the United States had entered World War II eight months earlier. Grateful to the country that had given him fame and wealth, Flynn attempted to join every branch of the armed services, but he had several health problems. His heart was enlarged, with a murmur, and he had already suffered at least one heart attack. That was not all: he had recurrent malaria (contracted in New Guinea), chronic back pain. Flynn, famous for his athletic roles and promoted as a paragon of physical beauty, was classified 4-F – unqualified for military service because of not meeting the minimum physical fitness standards.
This created a public image problem for both Flynn and Warner Brothers. Flynn was often criticised for his failure to enlist while continuing to play war heroes in films. The studios’ failure to counter the criticism was due to a desire to hide the state of Flynn’s health. He was also expensive – in the late 1940s his fee was $200,000 a film.
By the 1950s, Flynn had become a parody of himself. Heavy alcohol and drug abuse left him prematurely aged and bloated. In 1952 he became seriously ill with hepatitis and liver failure. He won acclaim as a drunken ne’er-do-well in The Sun Also Rises (1957), and as his idol John Barrymore in Too Much, Too Soon (1958). Flynn starred in a 1956 anthology series The Errol Flynn Theatre that was filmed in England, where he presented the episodes and sometimes appeared in them. About this time he also guest starred on NBC’s comedy/variety show, The Martha Raye Show.
Flynn and Beverly Aadland met with Stanley Kubrick to discuss appearing together in Lolita. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Flynn
Errol Flynn western movies for free . Errol Flynn is most remembered for his Robin Hood but he did several great westerns . Just click on the one you want to watch . Then sit back and relax and enjoy the movie . Westerns full of boots, old west, big cowboy hats, spurs and saddles .
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Where are the movies?
like to watch westerns