Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn (1909-1959), genial swashbuckling hero of Hollywood's golden age, born Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn in Hobart, Tasmania. Flynn was an adventurer before attaining the lead in a semi-amateur local film, In the Wake of the Bounty (1932). The role tempted him to pursue an acting career in Britain where, after a few menial jobs, a Warner Bros. executive sent him to Hollywood. Warners, desperate for someone to play the pirate lead of Captain Blood (1935), cast Flynn in the role—they had found a new star.

Often paired with Olivia de Havilland, Flynn cut a dashing figure in such films as The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Private Lives of Elizabeth And Essex (1939), and The Sea Hawk (1940). A much-publicized private life, with an accusation of statutory rape made against him by two teenage girls, did not harm his image, but the war made escapism old-fashioned, and he was less effective in westerns, war tales, and thrillers. The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) was a return to form, but Flynn's heavy drinking was taking its toll and his film career after leaving Warners in 1950 went into decline.