Overview
One of the great screen idols of the Golden Age of Hollywood was an Australian. This is the first biography to tell Errol Flynn's full story, from his unusual childhood in Tasmania to his celebrity lifestyle, and his tragic end.
The handsome, swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn was one of the first great screen idols of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born in Tasmania, he attended Shore in Sydney, and as a young man sought his fortune in the brutal colony of New Guinea. He was talent-spotted by Warner Bros while acting in the UK, and went on to find fame and fortune in lead roles in Hollywood blockbuster films such as Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) and Robin Hood (1938).
People think they know the Errol Flynn story. Including his 1959 autobiography, My Wicked, Wicked Ways (reissued most recently in 2005), numerous popular books and articles have been published about Flynn, repeating the colorful stories about his stardom, his womanizing, wealth, hedonistic lifestyle and sad end, aged just 50. Patricia O'Brien's groundbreaking biography reveals a much bigger and more interesting story.
By using new sources, asking fresh questions, and including Australian perspectives, this book goes way beyond a retelling of Hollywood history. O'Brien investigates how Flynn's parents and unusual early life influenced the man he became and his success as an actor. She traces how he conquered America, becoming one of the most famous, influential, and controversial men of his time. She claims he made 'bad boy' behavior admired by both men and women, and he made entitlement part of his celebrity success like no one else had done before. It is both a revealing and intimate view of Flynn, and for the first time it gives serious attention to the many women in his life. Flynn's 1942 rape trial uncovered the sexual trafficking of underage girls in Hollywood on a grand scale, and will fascinate readers as a precursor to the reckoning of #MeToo in our time. O'Brien debunks accusations that Flynn was a Nazi agent, but shows how Flynn was implicated in antisemitism in Hollywood, as well as racism.
This is the first substantially researched account of the Errol Flynn story, and it will be regarded as the most authoritative biography. The uncomfortable truths about Flynn's life that O'Brien reveals hold many resonances for us today.
“O'Brien brilliantly takes us to the dark heart of the world's most famous dream factory and one of its most notorious, and celebrated, habitués.” Frank Bongiorno
“An unlikely, but too-true history of race, sex, violence, empire, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Hollywood. Immaculately researched and brilliantly told.” Alison Bashford
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