5 Things you didn’t know about Errol Flynn

Patricia A. O'Brien shares some lesser known facts about Australian Hollywood icon Errol Flynn.

1. Errol Flynn was the first movie action hero.

He made his name in ambitious, big budget movies playing heroes fighting for justice and the British empire, or its offshoot in the American west. He did many of his own stunts, which required some impressive horse-riding, sword fighting, swinging on ships’ rigging, or handling a gun.  Flynn’s brand was that he had led a life of danger and adventure before arriving in Hollywood. He had spent years in Australia’s colonies in New Guinea just prior to arriving in Hollywood, and New Guinea remained a reference point milked and greatly embellished in Flynn’s myth as he became synonymous with the authentic real-life version of the heroes he portrayed. Art imitating life was a consistent factor in Flynn’s story that charted an incredible course from valiant hero to broken anti-hero in less than 25 years.

2. One of Flynn’s set pieces in his many heroic roles, was a stirring speech declaring his fight for justice.

His became the voice for the oppressed and downtrodden that was woven tightly into his public image from his first on-screen appearance as Captain Blood in 1935. But it was his portrayal of Robin Hood, the evergreen hero, that cemented Flynn as being a living embodiment of this character.  Flynn’s Robin Hood, still considered by many the quintessential portrayal of this folk hero, came in the midst of great turmoil and distress in the world, as the effects of the Great Depression were still being acutely felt and the drums of World War Two were beating ever louder. Flynn became a household name millions of movie goers looked to, which imbued Flynn with a heroic aura and made him the most famous man in the world in these turbulent times.

3. Though he was known for his on-screen heroics, which appealed to men, it was Flynn’s romantic credentials that ignited his prodigious status as a sex symbol for women.

He appealed to a broad age demographic, from matrons to the first generation of teenage girls who forged the cultural force of mass celebrity fandom. Flynn co-starred with many leading ladies, but it was his off-screen reputation for rampant promiscuity that powered this dimension of his public image. Ironically, Flynn’s untamed sexuality came at a time of intense cultural prudery and restrictions on how sexuality and romance could be portrayed on-screen. This only amplified the ardour of female fans and took Flynn to a singular place in the cultural landscape.

4. At the height of his fame, 33-year-old Errol Flynn, the greatest romantic hero of the age, was tried for the rape of two teenage girls.

This was a sensational trial that competed with headlines about the brutal battles of World War Two. The trial was an extraordinary event that tested Flynn’s popular image as a traduced hero competing against shocking glimpses of a vast system of sexual abuse of teenage girls embedded in Hollywood. Flynn’s trial was an event that pitted the privileges of a wealthy, handsome, celebrated man against the stories of young, powerless girls, testing where the law and society was going to stand. Flynn won resoundingly in court, and in the court of public opinion. He became an even bigger star and his iconic status in American culture was, as the man who could do what he liked, with whom he liked, and get away with it. This sentiment was encapsulated in the popular saying “in like Flynn”.

5. Despite being held up as the exemplar of American manhood (though he was Australian-born and raised, a fact many in the U.S. do not know to this day), Flynn was rejected for U.S. military service due to disqualifying health conditions.

This rejection and all the resulting blows to his sense of manhood, came at the same time as his trial, and had a big impact on Flynn.  He tried, however, to assist war efforts by becoming a spy for the U.S., claiming that his celebrity status allowed him unique access and abilities to acquire valuable information. His career as a war-time spy did not eventuate but Flynn did his part by entertaining troops who, to his amazement, absolutely loved him for his sexual scandals. In 1980, a writer concocted a story that Flynn, then dead for twenty years, had been a leading Nazi spy, and built a story around Flynn’s friendship with an Austrian doctor he met in New Guinea, and their trip to war-torn Spain in 1937. So began an extraordinary afterlife for Flynn brimming with falsehoods and fabrications. Flynn’s story was buried beneath this belief, yet the true and consequential story of his life and the world he impacted was missing in plain sight.

You can find Errol Flynn by Patricia A. O'Brien at your

bookstore of choice when it releases March 31. 

Errol Flynn

by Patricia A. O'Brien

Errol Flynn was one of the first larger-than-life celebrities, an icon of the screen. This major biography uncovers the real story behind the well-cultivated Hollywood myths of this Australian-born actor.