Forty years ago on April 6, 1970 two combat photojournalists
covering the Vietnam War were captured by factions of the Viet Cong and
Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and never heard from again. The news of their capture
received much attention in the media when the identity of the two was released. For taken along
with Dana Stone, a CBS correspondent was Sean Flynn, international film star
and the only legitimate son of legendary movie star, Errol Flynn and his first wife, French
actress, Lili Damita.The exploits, on and
off screen of Sean‘s dad, Errol Flynn have earned him a controversial, if not legendary status in Hollywood
history. His fame exceeded his starring roles in such Hollywood
classics as, “The Adventures of Robin Hood†(1938),“Captain Blood†(1935), “The Sea Hawk†(1940), “Dodge City†(1939) and
“The Adventures of Don Juan†(1948), but also as that of Hollywood’s premiere womanizer, bon vivant and scoundrel; the original “bad boy†of Hollywood.Flynn posthumously managed to leave one of the first, (if
not the first) tell-all memoirs of life in Hollywood.
Titled, “My Wicked, Wicked Waysâ€, it was to become an
autobiography to rival that of Casanova
(or some say Baron Munchausen).This was
the legacy he left his only son.His mother, Lili
Damita was a dancer, and fashion model turned actress with some prestigious
film credits of her own back in the late 1920s and early 1930s, but she gave all that up
when she married Errol. Before taking up the career of a combat photojournalist, Sean had dabbled in the “family business†and made a few very popular films in
Europe in the early 1960s that are largely unseen today and cast off as "cheesy trash". Even though his films were hugely popular in Europe, in American they were treated as cheaply-made "B" movies. Most barely saw release in his native country.