RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES. (FROM NOVEMBER 2009)

By Nick Thomas

Best known for his swashbuckling roles in films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, and The Sea Hawk, or as the dashing hero in war adventures and westerns, Errol Flynn appeared in some 50 movies during his short 16 year career in Hollywood.

This year is the centenary of Flynn’s birth in Tasmania, the southern island state of Australia. So you can bet Errol Flynn fans are whooping it up big, down under. In fact, a chunk of June and July was set aside in the city of Hobart, Flynn’s home town, to celebrate Tasmania’s most famous Hollywood son. Special guests at the celebrations were Flynn’s daughter, Rory, and grandson Sean.

Rory Flynn was just 12 when her father died which, as it turns out, was exactly 50 years ago this year too. She recently wrote about memories of her dad in “The Baron of Mulholland: A daughter Remembers Errol Flynn.” Rory inherited just a handful of items from her father, as most of Flynn’s estate went to his third wife. But earlier this year, Rory visited Tasmania and gave all her Flynn memorabilia, including love letters from her dad to her mom, to the Tasmanian museum for display.

Since any discussion of the Flynn clan is complicated by three marriages, let’s sort that out first: Errol married three times. First to French actress Lili Damita (one son, Sean, a photojournalist who went missing during the Vietnam war, and was never found); second to Nora Eddington (two daughters, Deirdre and Rory who had one son, also named Sean); third to actress Patrice Wymore (separated from Flynn but never divorced, and lived on Flynn’s old plantation in Jamaica; one daughter Arnella who died in 1998 who had one son, Luke). So the Errol Flynn lineage lies with two grandsons, Sean and Luke.


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CR: How did you get involved in the centenary festivities?

There’s a big fan club down there, the Errol Flynn Society of Tasmania. They started organizing this a couple of years ago and asked me to come down.


CR: Nice to see that Errol Flynn was recognized by the Aussies!

It’s great that Tasmania - and Australia - are honoring their native son this year, because Hollywood isn’t. They’re much more involved in their current stars, whereas Europe and other parts of the world are very considerate towards the older stars.


CR: What did it mean to you to visit Tasmania?

Well, I actually feel like I’ve brought my dad home. That’s where his roots are and they love him and honor him there. I think the people there understand that my father was an extraordinary man. I have also learned more about my roots. My grandfather was a very interesting man and is still well-known down there. There’s a street named after him, he was the curator of the museum for 6 years, and he was a professor of biology. They say my grandmother was a direct descendant of midshipman Edward Young, of the HMS Bounty. So I feel like I’ve come home too.


CR: What are some of your earliest memories of your father?

When I was around five, I used to lie on a bearskin rug in his den and I would fall asleep to the sound of his writing - the scratching of his pen. He was always writing. He was writing his autobiography from a very early age, and other books, documentaries and newspaper articles. I grew up with him until I was about 7, then after my parents separated I would see him several times a year. Those visits became huge. He was really big about spending quality time with us when he could.


CR: Did you know how sick he was towards the end of his life?

No, my mom didn’t tell us about it. We know now that shortly before he died, he told my mother that he was only given a year to live, but he only made it three more months. His liver was shot, he had tuberculosis, malaria, terrible back problems - and there he was, still swashbuckling all over the place to the end.


CR: What do you think made your dad stand out as an actor?

I think he bridged the gap between actors playing the tough American cowboy type who were simple and direct, and the European actors with sophisticated dialogue, like Leslie Howard. My dad was able to be that action hero, and still hold an intelligent conversation. No one had really done that before.


CR: In his 20s, Flynn sailed up the east coast of Australia to New Guinea where he had all sorts of real-life adventures, as recounted in his book, “Beam Ends.” Did that period of his life influence his acting?

Absolutely. This early period formed who he was. He was who he was by the time he got to Hollywood - he was that “Tasmanian Devil” and he brought that to his films.