Errol Flynn

Errol 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. 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. 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 Havilland, and the two actors subsequently made a number of popular films together.

Britannica Quiz

Hollywood Films in the 1930s Quiz

1 of 2

2 of 2

Typecast as a dashing fearless adventurer, Flynn went on to star in such colourful 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), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and They Died with Their Boots On (1941), and he portrayed boxer James J. Corbett in Gentleman Jim (1942). 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. In 1942 he was charged with the statutory rape of two teenaged 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).

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. 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.

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.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe