Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

His most notable roles include Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which was later named by the American Film Institute as the 18th-greatest hero in American film history, the lead role in Captain Blood (1935), Major Geoffrey Vickers in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City (both 1940) and San Antonio (1945).

His mother was born Lily Mary Young, but shortly after marrying Theodore at St John's Church of England, Birchgrove, Sydney, on 23 January 1909,[3] she changed her first name to Marelle.

In her memoirs, Lyons recalled Flynn as "a dashing figure—a handsome boy of nine with a fearless, somewhat haughty expression, already showing that sang-froid for which he was later to become famous throughout the civilised world".

[9] In 1926, he returned to Australia to attend Sydney Church of England Grammar School (known as "Shore"),[10] where he was the classmate of a future Australian prime minister, John Gorton.

[13] After being dismissed from a job as a junior clerk with a Sydney shipping company for pilfering petty cash, he went to Papua New Guinea at the age of eighteen, seeking his fortune in tobacco planting and gold mining in the Morobe Goldfield.

The studio originally intended to cast Robert Donat, but he turned down the part, afraid that his chronic asthma would make it impossible for him to perform the strenuous role.

[20] Warners considered a number of other actors, including Leslie Howard and James Cagney, and also conducted screen tests of those they had under contract, like Flynn.

Flynn played alcoholic sports reporter Frank Medlin, who sweeps Louise Elliott (Bette Davis) off her feet on a visit to Silver Bow, Montana.

)[33] Flynn had a powerful dramatic role in The Dawn Patrol (1938), a remake of a pre-code 1930 drama of the same title about Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots in World War I and the devastating burden carried by officers who must send men out to die every morning.

Flynn attributed her anger to unrequited romantic interest,[13] but according to others, Davis resented sharing equal billing with a man she considered incapable of playing any role beyond a dashing adventurer.

As Peter Valenti has written, "Errol's frustration at the role can be easily understood: he changed from antagonist to protagonist, from Southern to Northern officer, almost as the film was being shot.

Produced by Warner's Hal Wallis with a splendour that would set parsimonious Queen Bess's teeth on edge, constructed of the most tried-and-true cinema materials available, The Sea Hawk is a handsome, shipshape picture.

For Hungarian Director Michael Curtiz, who took Flynn from bit-player ranks to make Captain Blood and has made nine pictures with him since, it should prove a high point in their profitable relationship.

Another financial success was the Western Santa Fe Trail (1940), with de Havilland and Ronald Reagan and directed by Curtiz, which grossed $2,147,663 in the U.S., making it Warner Brothers' second-biggest hit of 1940.

[52] With the United States fully involved in the Second World War, he attempted to enlist in the armed services but failed the physical exam due to recurrent malaria (contracted in New Guinea), a heart murmur, various venereal diseases and latent pulmonary tuberculosis.

[52] Flynn was mocked by reporters and critics as a "draft dodger" because the studio refused to admit that their star, promoted for his physical beauty and athleticism, had been disqualified due to health problems.

[55] Warner Bros. purchased the rights to make a film of Corbett's life from his widow, Vera, specifically for their handsome, athletic and charming leading man.

In The Two Lives of Errol Flynn by Michael Freedland, Alexis Smith told of taking the star aside: "'It's so silly, working all day and then playing all night and dissipating yourself.

[63] In Edge of Darkness (1943), set in Nazi-occupied Norway, Flynn played a Norwegian resistance fighter, a role originally intended for Edward G. Robinson.

One such group, the American Boys' Club for the Defense of Errol Flynn—ABCDEF—accumulated a substantial membership that included William F. Buckley Jr.[69] The trial took place in late January and early February 1943.

[71] Flynn was acquitted, but the trial's widespread coverage and lurid overtones permanently damaged his carefully cultivated screen image as an idealised romantic leading player.

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood toured the house as a prospective buyer in the 1970s and reported, "Errol had two-way mirrors... speaker systems in the ladies' room.

"[92] In March 1955, the popular Hollywood gossip magazine Confidential ran a salacious article titled "The Greatest Show in Town... Errol Flynn and His Two-Way Mirror!

[106] By 1959, Flynn's financial difficulties had become so serious that he flew on 9 October to Vancouver, British Columbia, to negotiate the lease of his yacht Zaca to the businessman George Caldough.

Despite immediate emergency medical treatment from Gould and a swift transfer by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital, he did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead that evening.

[108][109][110] Flynn was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, a place he once remarked that he hated, with six bottles of his favourite whisky.

"[114] In 1961, Beverly Aadland's mother, Florence, co-wrote The Big Love with Tedd Thomey, alleging that Flynn had been involved in a sexual relationship with her daughter, who was 15 when it began.

[117][118] In 1996, Beverly Aadland gave an interview to Britain's Channel 4 documentary series Secret Lives corroborating the sexual relationship and claiming that the first time she and Flynn had sex, he had "forced himself" on her.

[120] He claimed Flynn had arranged to have Dive Bomber filmed on location at the San Diego Naval Base for the benefit of Japanese military planners, who needed information on American warships and defence installations.