Errol Flynn

See also Rafael Sabatini, author of the novels The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood, for the roots of Flynn's screen image. Merula planned to write a book about her relationship with Guinness but died before the book was written. Sirocco, the LP from which the song was taken, was named after Flynn's yacht. The biography also states, on the basis of letters written by his wife, Merula, that Guinness was an emotionally abusive husband who regularly publicly humiliated both his wife and son. It was a Top 20 Australian hit in 1981. Either date is several years after his 1938 marriage -- http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biog2/guin1.html and http://myweb.lsbu.ac.uk/~stafflag/alecguinness.html (The Knitting Circle of South Bank University). In popular music, Flynn was the inspiration for the song "Errol", which was recorded by the '80s rock group Australian Crawl. NOTE: Other accounts give the date of the Liverpool arrest as 1946.

Author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story (Doubleday, 1980) in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathiser and that he spied for the Nazis before and during World War II, but subsequent biographies—notably Tony Thomas' Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel, 1990)—have denounced Higham's claims as fabrications. When arrested the actor gave as his name Herbert Pocket, the character he had just played in David Lean's film version of Great Expectations and was prosecuted and fined under that name, but avoided public scandal because the police never realised the true identity of "Pocket" until decades later. Errol Flynn is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California. It also revealed that the actor was arrested in Liverpool in 1948 for cottaging (soliciting for sex in a public toilet). His mother, a former fashion model, died on the Flynn family estate in Jamaica after a hard life of alcohol and drug addiction. A 2003 biography of Guinness, by the author Piers Paul Read, revealed that the actor was bisexual, who before his marriage had had several homosexual relationships. One of Errol Flynn's grandsons, sometime model Luke Flynn (birth name Luke Stoecker, born 1976), the only child of Arnella Flynn (1953-1998) and fashion photographer Carl Stoecker, was named one of the world's sexiest bachelors by People magazine in 2003. Guinness wrote three volumes of bestselling autobiography, beginning with Blessings in Disguise in 1985, followed by My Name Escapes Me in 1996 and A Positively Final Appearance in 1999.

The younger Flynn's life was recounted in Inherited Risk by Jeffrey Meyers (Simon & Schuster). He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 Vine Street. His only son, Sean Flynn, became an actor and later a war correspondent who disappeared in Cambodia in 1970 during the Vietnam Conflict. He was appointed CBE in 1955, was knighted in 1959, and became a Companion of Honour in 1994. He planned to marry her and move to their new house in Jamaica, but during their trip to Vancouver he had his heart attack. Sir Alec Guinness died of liver cancer on August 5, 2000, at Midhurst in West Sussex, and was interred near Petersfield, Hampshire, England. In the late 1950s, he met the 14-year-old Beverly Aadland at the Hollywood Professional School, whom he courted during the following few years. One of his last appearances was in the acclaimed BBC drama Eskimo Day.

Flynn was married three times, to actress Lili Damita from 1935 until 1942 (one son, Sean); to Nora Eddington (1924–2001) from 1943 until 1948 (two daughters, Deirdre and Rory); and to actress Patrice Wymore from 1950 until his death (one daughter, Arnella Roma). From the 1970s, Guinness made regular television appearances, including the part of George Smiley in the serialisations of two novels by John le Carré: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People. Flynn wanted to call the book In Like Me, but his publishers refused. He would throw out any fan mail regarding Star Wars without reading it. His somewhat unreliable autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, was published just months after his death from a heart attack and contains humorous anecdotes about Hollywood. His part as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars brought him worldwide recognition by a new generation (and reputedly lots of money), though he was never happy with being identified with the part. But he still won some acclaim as a drunken ne'er-do-well in The Sun Also Rises (1957). He also received an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements in 1980.

By the mid 1950s, he was something of a self-parody; heavy alcohol abuse had left him noticeably bloated in his last years. He was nominated again in 1958 for his screenplay adapted from Joyce Cary's novel The Horse's Mouth. The trial took place in January and February of 1943, and Flynn was cleared of the crime, but he suffered both personally and in his career. His film appearances ranged from Lawrence of Arabia to The Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Academy Award as best actor in 1957. Buckley, Jr. Guinness was also a talented dramatic and character actor. A group organized to support Flynn called the American Boys Club for the Defense of Errol Flynn (ABCDEF); its members included William F. In 1954 during the shooting of the film Father Brown, he converted to Roman Catholicism and became devout, attending church regularly for the rest of his life.

He was well known for having wild parties; his reputation caught up with him when teenagers Betsy Hansen and Peggy Satterlee charged him with statutory rape in November 1942. In 1952, director Ronald Neame cast Guinness in his first romantic lead role, opposite Petula Clark in The Card. His reputation as a womanizer led to the expression "In like Flynn". Other films from this period included The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers, and The Man in the White Suit. During the shooting of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Flynn and co-star Bette Davis had some legendary off-screen fights. He was initially mainly associated with the Ealing comedies, and particularly for playing 12 different characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets. He appeared in eight films with Olivia de Havilland. He returned to the Old Vic in 1946.

He also played opposite Olivia de Havilland in the western movie Dodge City (1939). During the War he appeared in Terence Rattigan's West End Play for Bomber Command, Flare Path. He was typecast as a swashbuckler and made several such films including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (widely regarded as his best film in this genre and an acknowledged Hollywood classic) The Sea Hawk (1940), and The Adventures of Don Juan (1949). Alec Guinness served in the Royal Navy throughout World War II, serving first as a seaman in 1941 and being commissioned the following year and commanded a landing craft taking part in the invasion of Sicily and Elba and later ferrying supplies to the Yugoslav partisans. Although he hadn't really planned on an acting career, Flynn become a star with his third film, Captain Blood, in 1935. He married the artist, playwright, and actress Merula Salaman in 1938, and they had a son, Matthew, in 1940. Upon gaining some experience in the acting trade, he moved to Hollywood looking for film work. Born in London, he first worked in advertising before making his debut at the Old Vic in 1936.

In the early 1930s he returned to Britain and in 1933 he managed to get an acting job with Northampton Repertory Theatre where he worked for two years. Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE (April 2, 1914 - August 5, 2000) was a British actor who became one of the most versatile and best loved performers of his generation. Shortly afterwards he moved to New Guinea where he drifted from job to job. Great Expectations (1946). As a child he was taken to Sydney, where he attended two schools, and was expelled from both. Oliver Twist (1948). Errol Leslie Thompson Flynn (June 20, 1909–October 14, 1959), was a film actor born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia most famous for his romantic swashbuckler roles. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

A Run for Your Money (1949). Last Holiday (1950). The Mudlark (1950). The Lavender Hill Mob (1951).

The Man in the White Suit (1951). The Card (1952). The Captain's Paradise (1953). The Square Mile (1953) (voice).

The Malta Story (1953). Father Brown (1954). The Stratford Adventure (1954). To Paris with Love (1955).

The Prisoner (1955). The Ladykillers (1955). Rowlandson's England (1955). The Swan (1956).

The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957). Barnacle Bill (1957). The Horse's Mouth (1958). The Scapegoat (1959).

Our Man in Havana (1959). Tunes of Glory (1960). A Majority of One (1961). Defiant (1962).

H.M.S. Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). Doctor Zhivago (1965).

But Not Serious (1965). Situation Hopeless.. Hotel Paradiso (1966). The Quiller Memorandum (1966).