Brawler, hellraiser, hedonist, world-class carouser, indiscriminate lover, drunkard, and drug addict. Errol Flynn was all these things, but he was also a good writer, had a magnetic personality, and was a charismatic actor. Marlene Dietrich, one of his lovers, called him ‘Satan’s Angel.’

Errol Leslie Flynn was born in Tasmania on June 20, 1909. His mother constantly belittled and beat him, instilling in him a mistrust of women that drove him to control them throughout his life. Flynn grew up bright, lazy, and self-indulgent, skating on his charm and athletic ability. He was a tennis champion in his teens but was thrown out of a number of schools. At age 14 he was sent to boarding school in England; he returned to Australia in two years.

At age 17 he went to New Guinea to make his fortune. He was employed as a policeman, mechanic, clerk, plantation boss, and newspaper writer, unable to hold down a job for long, playing cards, getting drunk, ultimately returning to Australia with gonorrhea and malaria.

After stealing the jewels of a woman he dallied with, Flynn set off for England via Asia. In London, he appeared in a couple of films, then got a job with the Northampton Repertory Theatre. He split town, leaving behind debts after being fired from the repertory company for throwing a stage manager down a stairwell. He went back to London, where he got a role in a film that caught the eye of Jack L. Warner, who offered him a studio contract for six months at $125 per week.

On the voyage to New York, Flynn met actress Lili Damita and became a frequent guest at her Garden of Allah apartment in Hollywood. At the Garden, Flynn also befriended David Niven, who became a fellow carouser and lifelong friend. Niven would later write about his friendship with Flynn in his memoir: “You always knew precisely where you stood with him because he always let you down … he thoroughly enjoyed causing turmoil for himself and his friends.”

After bit parts in a couple of movies, Warner cast Flynn as the lead in Captain Blood, a pirate movie costarring newcomer Olivia de Havilland and directed by Michael Curtiz. The film was a huge success. All of a sudden, in 1935, Flynn became a movie star.

 

He and Damita had married that same year in Yuma, Arizona. The two spent their time rowing and making up. She had a wild temper. They would have physical fights – he once suffered a concussion after she hit him with a bottle. He had no compunction about hitting her back. At their anniversary party, where he turned up late, Damita and Flynn got into a violent fight. She hit him with a champagne bottle and he punched her face. The two separated.

Other movies followed in quick succession. There was The Charge of the Light Brigade, in 1936, again with Curtiz – whom Flynn loathed and tormented. That was followed by Green Light, The Prince and the Pauper, and Another Dawn, in 1937. Then, Flynn decided to go to Spain to observe the civil war as a war correspondent for Hearst newspapers. After rumors of his death in the fighting circulated, Flynn returned to Hollywood via West Indies, on board the new sailboat that he purchased on impulse.

Around this time, Flynn began an affair with the ‘Mexican Spitfire’ Lupe Velez, who was married to Johnny Weismuller. Velez had the reputation of being a man-eater and nymphomaniac. It was reported that she taught Flynn how to enhance his sexual prowess by applying cocaine to the tip of his penis. In his posthumously published memoir, “My Wicked Wicked Ways,” Flynn kisses and tells about Velez:  once, she stopped performing oral sex on him to pray to a statue of the Madonna on his bedside table; then, “having absolved herself, a smile opened on her momentarily spiritually clothed face and she again took up the subject of Flynn.”

Flynn’s best-known and most successful movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood, was released in 1938, again with co-star de Havilland. The film was directed by the unfortunate Curtiz, who replaced director William Keighley after Flynn tormented Keighley by flouting his authority and turning up late every day. Flynn, of course, tormented Curtiz as well. The two battled it out during the entire production. The film was WB’s most expensive movie, with a budget of $2.5 million. It was shot in three-strip Technicolor. Flynn earned $3,600 a week for his dramatic work and was featured on the cover of Life magazine, another boost to his career and more insurance against Jack Warner firing him off the movie.

After splitting with Damita, Flynn set up his party headquarters at 601 N. Linden Drive, with David Niven. The two caroused their way through Hollywood, even though Flynn was still married to Damita.  

 

A few minor hits followed. Then, Flynn got a serious role in the hit The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, in 1939, opposite Betty Davis. Relations on that set were not good, with Davis openly scornful of Flynn’s acting ability – and angry that she was only earning $5,000 a week, to Flynn’s $6,000. Flynn skated nonchalantly through his scenes.

In August of 1941, Damita filed for divorce. Earlier, in May, she had given birth to their son, Sean. The monthly alimony payments he chose to give her, instead of a lump sum settlement (as he was building his infamous house, Mulholland Farm), were a critical mistake. That mistake would end up costing him the house. He got in the habit of missing those monthly alimony payments. Damita hauled him into court over and over again.

Flynn kept making hit films like the Western Virginia City and the swashbuckler The Sea Hawk, both in 1940. He also did another Western, Santa Fe Trail. But money ran through his fingers. He partied hard, drank hard, and sank all his money into Mulholland Farm.

The house was finally finished in 1942, a 4,000-square-foot California colonial with pool and tennis court. Every Sunday, hordes of women would come to his open house. What distinguished the house was the two-way mirrors Flynn installed over a guest bedroom and a bathroom in order to spy on his guests.

Raucous parties were held there, drinks and drugs flowing. Stars such as Dolores del Rio, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Lamour, and Hedy Lamarr often attended. In 1955, Confidential magazine did an expose on the house. Title of the article: “The Greatest Show in Town … Errol Flynn and His Two-Way Mirror!” Flynn took the magazine to court but, eventually, dropped the suit.

They Died with Their Boots On, in which Flynn played George Armstrong Custer, was Warner’s second biggest hit of 1942. Gentleman Jim, the biopic of boxer Jim Corbett, was another success released that year.

It was also in 1942 that Flynn was accused of statutory rape by two women. Betty Hansen accused him of raping her at a party. Peggy Satterlee accused him of raping her aboard his yacht, the Sirocco. Flynn wrote in his memoir, “If you meet a young lady who invites herself for a trip on your yacht, knowing in advance full well what the risks are, who the hell asks for her birth certificate, especially if she is built like Venus? And if afterwards she tells you she has had the most wonderful time, who has been hurt?”

Flynn was charged with four counts of rape and a grand jury was convened. The case made headlines like ‘Robin Hood Accused of Rape’ and ‘The Dirty Deeds of Captain Blood.’ Flynn managed to beat the charges, buoyed by public sentiment that was firmly on his side. He also met his second wife, Nora Eddington, at the courthouse. Nora worked at the tobacco shop. She was also underage. When she became pregnant and demanded that he marry her, the wedding took place in 1943 in Acapulco. Their daughters, Deirdre and Rory, were born in 1944 and 1947.

After the trial, Flynn went back to work. He made the war films Northern Pursuit, in 1943, Uncertain Glory, in 1944, and Objective, Burma!, in 1945. Life caught up with him in the form of health problems, and the hits became fewer and further apart. The Adventures of Don Juan, in 1947, attempted to return him to the swashbuckler genre, with moderate success. By now he was turning up drunk on the set, snorting cocaine, and suffering from the shakes when he tried to cut back on his drinking.

 

In 1949 Eddington filed for divorce. In 1950 Flynn married his third wife, actress Patrice Wymore, in Monte Carlo. According to author David Bret in his book “Errol Flynn Gentleman Hellraiser,” 4,000 screaming fans were outside the Nice Lutheran Church, where the couple went for a blessing. Wymore’s four bridesmaids were extras from his film Adventures of Captain Fabian, all of whom had slept with the groom. During the wedding reception, Flynn was served a writ accusing him of seducing an underage French girl.

After a few more movies, Flynn moved to Europe. He tried to produce The Story of William Tell with his own funds. The project fell apart mid-shoot and left him financially ruined. Flynn’s business manager died after embezzling some money. Complicating everything further, Flynn collapsed with a bout of hepatitis. He had to be hospitalized. Upon his recovery, he told reporters: “It wasn’t the doctors that saved my life. I made a pact with the devil years ago that I’m not going to give that son of a bitch Jack Warner the satisfaction of outliving me.”

In the 1950s Flynn made a comeback of sorts in films like The Sun Also Rises, in 1957; and Too Much, Too Soon, in 1958. He followed this work with a trip to Cuba, where he befriended Fidel Castro, sympathized with the Cuban revolution and wrote articles about his experiences for the New York Journal American. Flynn produced and starred in Cuban Rebel Girls, a semi-documentary that would be his final onscreen performance. Costarring was his underage girlfriend, Beverly Aadland. They would have a two-year affair that made headlines upon his death, when it was revealed that the relationship had started when she was just 17 years of age.

Flynn died in 1959 on a trip to Vancouver, where he had gone to negotiate the lease of his yacht, the Zaca. After complaining of pain in his back and legs, Flynn was misdiagnosed as suffering from osteoarthritis. Demerol was administered. It caused him to become unresponsive. He was pronounced dead of a heart attack soon after. Cirrhosis of the liver contributed to his demise. He was 50 years old. Errol Flynn is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Six bottles of his favorite whiskey were buried with him.