The Errol Flynn Blog

In addition to being a big Flynn fan, I'm also a fan of Johnny Weissmuller. Now I know Errol and Johnny were, at the very least, “friendly acquaintances”…they were sometimes in the same social circles in Hollywood. Also, I know Johnny participated in the press junket for “Santa Fe Trail” with Errol.

So, has anyone here read the book “Tarzan, My Father” by Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.? In the book, there's an incident mentioned of a yacht race between Errol and Johnny Sr. in which Errol lost, and in his drunken state almost blew a hole in Johnny's yacht with a cannon ball!

Now I have not come across any mention of this incident anywhere else except in Weissmuller Jr.'s book, so I'm curious to know if anyone else here has heard of or come across a mention of that incident elsewhere.

— Rachel

This weekend I saw the new movie “Thor”, based on the Marvel Comics superhero and his adventures. I really enjoyed the film, and was surprised to find one of the characters in it (he's a character from the Thor comic books) resembles, in part, Errol. His name is Fandral and he's one of the Warriors Three and friend of Thor, the main hero. He looks like a combination of: Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow from DC comics who's modeled after Errol and Robin Hood), Cary Elwes from “The Princess Bride” and “Robin Hood Men In Tights”, and a young Errol Flynn! Joshua Dallas is the young actor who plays Fandral.

I found the following on the Wikipedia page for the “Thor” film:

“[Fandral is] a member of the Warriors Three, characterized as an irrepressible swashbuckler and romantic…Joshua Dallas said he believed that Fandral 'would like to think of himself a philanderer. He’s a lover, not a fighter'. Dallas also mentioned that Errol Flynn was an inspiration for the character stating, 'He was a big inspiration for the character and for me. I watched a lot of his movies and kind of got that into my bones. I tried to bring out that little bit of Flynn-ness in it. Flynn had a lot of that boyish charm that Fandral’s got all in him'.”

So I thought that was pretty cool. :-) I've attached 2 images: one of Fandral from the Thor comics, and the other of Joshua Dallas as Fandral.

— Rachel

Hi fellow Flynnians!

Aside from being a Flynn fan, I'm also a big Disney fan (and a fan of animation in general). Yesterday I saw Disney's new (50th) animated film “Tangled”. It's a really great retelling/re-imagining of the fairytale of Rapunzel. Anyway, so what does this have to do with Errol Flynn?

Well…the main hero in the film is a guy named Flynn Rider (actual first name Eugene — note the first initial “E”). The Disney filmmakers named him after Errol, and partially modeled his character on Errol and his swashbuckling hero persona. Here's a brief description of Flynn Rider, taken from a promotional magazine for “Tangled”: “The rogue bandit Flynn Rider is daring, and has always relied on his wit, charm and good looks to get out of even the stickiest of situations.”

Also, here's a quote about the character from one reviewer of the movie: “He's named Flynn by the way, and may remind parents, or grandparents, of a similar hero, circa 1937's 'The Prince and the Pauper'.”

And, to top it off, in the film Flynn Rider tells Rapunzel that he took his name from a legendary swashbuckler by the name of Flynnigan Rider — a man who was daring, heroic, good with the ladies, rich, and could do anything and go anywhere in the world. Sound familiar? :-)

So, this is the 2nd time (if you count their animated version of Robin Hood) that Disney has created an Errol Flynn-inspired animated character. I also know of 3 other Errol-inspired animated characters: The heroic archer-poet called Bow and the hero pirate called Sea Hawk — both from the 1980's animated TV series “She-Ra: Princess of Power”, and the heroic swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep — a computer-animated character in the Disney live-action “Narnia” films.

Anyone else know of any others?

— Rachel

Hi fellow Flynn fans!

Attached are my Errol Flynn logo designs. I used two Adobe programs to make them : Photoshop and Illustrator. You might recognize the headshot of Errol used in the designs…it’s a rather “well-known” side profile shot of Errol (it’s the same one used on the cover of Robert Matzen’s new E&O book), and one that I particularly like, so I decided to incorporate it. I used a flag because I thought it would make a good “backdrop” and because flags are often seen flying on the masts of boats, yachts, and ships. So I created “Flynn flag” logos, complete with Errol’s image, his famous signature (which is beautifully scriptive, in two different styles), and Errol’s square-ish question mark symbols (which of course he created for himself, to symbolize his own life). I kept the image of Errol in grayscale, and used only 3 other colors in the logos: black, blue, and green. Why those 3 colors? Well, black is reminiscent of a pirate flag, blue is for the water/ocean/sea which Errol loved, and green is for the lush jungles/trees/vegetation Errol encountered in his travels (New Guinea, Jamaica) and was often surrounded by. Not to mention it’s also Robin Hood’s signature color as well. So that describes Errol Flynn logo designs 1 and 2.

The third logo design resembles the previous two, except that this one has Errol’s initials in place of his profile. Otherwise, same flag, same question mark symbols and same 3 colors used. And the fourth logo design has the same 3 colors, same EF initials, same question mark symbols, but this time I used a shield instead of a flag. A shield to symbolize Errol as the warrior/soldier/hero, with a “bulls-eye” pattern of circles in the center of the shield (to symbolize an archery target; Errol as archer).

So these are my four logo designs…I hope you like them. I may create others, I don’t know yet. I was actually thinking about creating a logo design (or two) for Errol and Olivia, together — an Errolivia logo.

— Rachel