The Life and Work of Errol Flynn

ERROL FLYNN "Those first thoughts of death, destruction and suicide began to occur within me--which would not easily or perhaps ever vanish. I no longer had such an interest in living. I didn't give a damn, in fact. Much of the will to live had gone." Like Hemingway, he sat with a gun to his head. He contemplated suicide. Three nights in a row he sat at the edge of the bed with a revolver to his head. The third night it was in his mouth. He, Errol Flynn, had power, fame, money, women, yet it was all an empty victory. He had been destroyed by the rape trial. "That which I had, my big house, my yacht, my bank account, seemed hollow. None of these could take the place of self respect, which I had lost." He would write in his autobiography, "Inside I was smarting, terribly wounded from the scar of the rape trial." He had other aspirations for his life than becoming a phallic symbol. Everyone thought they knew Errol Flynn, but they didn't. He was a complicated man who camouflaged his true self from the outside world and only through some of his own writing could one glean the type of person he really was and what he had hoped to be. No one could enter with aplomb and grace like him, who clicked his heels in salute like him, who was the greatest swashbuckler like him, a terrific horseman who held his sword and lance as if they were part of him; no one could be as great a leader like him, tall, handsome, dashing, whose voice, eyes and mannerisms would make ladies fall in love with him and men follow him to the end of the earth. The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Sea Hawk, They Died with Their Boots On, and Objective Burma are some of the finest films ever made, and undoubtedly no one has been able to replace him. He was a natural actor who lived his roles and his characters, but who aspired to be a writer and war correspondent. He was a man marred by an ugly childhood of neglect and abandonment, who rose out of sheer fortitude of his character to become one of the great stars of the golden age. This book is a probing and extensively researched attempt to explore the people, events and factors that made Errol Flynn who he was. It is an analysis of his triumph, his tortured inner self and his ultimate downfall. There is in addition a complete filmography with historical background.