I found an interesting post from Newsweek regarding a book written by David Heeley and Joan Kramer: “In the Company of Legends“. Turner Classic Movies showed 5 of their biographies this past week. Not included in the TV program, but in their book (I believe) is a section on Errol. Excerpt:
Any examples of getting too close to the subjects to make your treatment balanced?
DH: Sometimes it’s tricky when you’re getting very close to the people involved. You don’t want to offend them but you can’t let that color how you tell the story. In the case of the Errol Flynn show we got very close to [his widow] Pat Wymore, who initially wouldn’t talk to anybody about him. Joan got her on the phone and that was the end of that [laughs]. Joan can persuade anybody. At the end of the phone call she said, “Why don’t you come down and visit me?” We were very close to Pat but we said Errol Flynn did not lead a life that was all hunky-dory. If we’re going to really tell the truth, we risk offending Pat. We talked to her and she said, “Just tell the story straight.” She knew who she was married to. So we did tell the story straight and she said, in the end, “Errol would have been so happy. Because yes of course we showed his flaws, but we also showed the world that he was a great actor.”
Right On Pat!
— Maria
