The Errol Flynn Blog

I have finally decided for these three:

My favourite studio portrait because I like it when they kept his hair at least a little wavy:

One of my favourite candids because I like the way he looks so dishevelled and then that famous smile:

And one of my favourite movie stills because I like him immensely in “That Forsyte Woman” and I always wish I was there in that scene to comfort poor Soames…. I mean, what woman prefers Robert Young to Errol Flynn???

— Inga

The June Rock-itt magazine is now online. Click the link to read about the latest in music, entertainment and sport on the Northern Beaches.
Cheers
Pete

— David DeWitt

I was in touch with Rory Flynn recently, and she has expressed an interest in being more active on the blog (she has been a member for some time) but of course also has a very busy life! She is interested in using our collective skills as Flynn Detectives to discover any footage of herself with her father that may be in someone’s collection, or available in an archive somewhere. She is interested in any newsreels featuring her father, too. She has many private photos in her collection but there was an estate sale of some kind back in the day and she mentions that actor Roddy McDowell somehow was able to purchase film stock and photos and kept them under lock and key. I was able to send her some home movie footage, and outtakes from Cruise of the Zaca but I know that there is a lot more out there, and if anyone can find it – it is us!

She recalls going to a premier at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre with her father but doesn’t know if that is available anywhere. I believe I have seen this clip! Just where? We all do a lot of researching, and it can become a jumble of sites and disks with who knows what on them! So, are there any hardy detectives here who would like to contribute some time to this?

— David DeWitt

Remembering Sean Flynn, son of Errol on what would have been his 71st birthday.–A. R.

— ILIKEFLYNN

Maybe a little off-topic but we get to Flynn in the end! An amusing little tale I saw on another forum. The topic was arrogant film stars and Steve McQueen was mentioned and his infamous meeting with Oliver Reed.

If its any consolation, Ollie Reed once threw up on him in a nightclub

From the autobiography of George MacDonald Faser:

“I gathered then that there was no love lost between him and McQueen, and this was confirmed by McQueen when I worked with him some months later on Taipan. There was a part which I thought Oliver would be right for, but Steve frowned and wrinkled his nose. “Ferdinand the Bull,” he said. “You know why they call him that? Because he’s always being put on his ass.” Pause. “Matter of fact, I almost put him on his ass once myself.”

“The idea of McQueen, who was fairly slight in build and of no more than middle height, putting that hulking mass of muscle* on any part of its anatomy, was not worthy of comment, so I didn’t. I have since been told that the reason for their mutual dislike was that Oliver had thrown up over Steve during a meeting in London, which might account for it, but I suspect that even if Oliver’s internal economy had been under control they would still have been poles apart, the quiet, plain-spoken, pretty egotistical American, and the ebullient, beautifully accented Englishman. Thinking of them together, I have no difficulty understanding the events of 1776.”

* Oliver certainly had an impressive physique, but I was told that when he managed to get hold of the shirt worn by Errol Flynn in the 1937 version of The Prince and the Pauper, he found to his astonishment that it was too big for him.

— themainflynnman

David’s outcry made me think! Much as morbid curiosity may go, I too would rather not see Errol that way! So if I may be indulged, I would like to share two of my favorite photos.
In the studio publicity shot showing the more mature Errol, he kind of reminds me of my father. (At least how I remember him.) (In the words of the American musical group from “Motown Records”, the Temptations, “Papa was a rolling stone!” Sort of like Errol was to Sean.) ( Those who are familiar with the Temptations’ recording, might agree.)
Any way I hope you enjoy and let’s remember, “They died with their boots on!”–A. R.

— ILIKEFLYNN