Errol Flynn was a major movie sex symbol during the golden age of Hollywood, with an off-screen life just as colourful, with three marriages behind him and a predilection for teenage girls. Living life to excess with too much alcohol and drugs, as well as worsening health, he died aged only 50, almost broke, never having returned to his native Australia.

Flynn was born in 1909 in Tasmania where his father, Theodore, was an academic. O’Brien has researched her man thoroughly, discovering that for a couple of generations before Errol was born, the Flynn men drank too much and abandoned their families.

In 1932, Australian filmmakers, Charles and Elsa Chauvel, met Flynn in Sydney and cast him as Fletcher Christian in a movie about the mutiny on the Bounty. Flynn’s movie career solidified after some theatre work in England, and he became a leading man in Hollywood, making 57 films. He arrived with an established attitude to sex and fidelity – he was all for the former and paid no heed to the latter, according to O’Brien.

He was the subject of a Hollywood trial in 1942 when charged with the rape of two underage girls. While acquitted and supported by his legion of mostly female fans, the trial revealed just how teenage girls seeking movie careers were exploited.

I enjoyed this account of Errol Flynn’s life, revealing him to be a deeply flawed movie idol whose life ended sadly. This man, who looked good in tights and always used his Australian accent to charm millions of fans, probably shortened his life with his wicked, wicked ways.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Associate Professor Patricia A. O’Brien is an historian, author, analyst and commentator on Australia and Oceania. She is a faculty member in Asian Studies at Georgetown University and Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. She is the author of Tautai and The Pacific Muse, and co-editor of League of Nations, and she writes for The Conversation and The Diplomat.

Visit Patricia A O’Brien’s website here.

Read more about Errol Flynn on the publisher’s website here.