Saturdays with the Stars Errol Flynn

Each month of 2026 we are looking at an actor or actress who found their fame in action films, fighting bad guys & saving the day.  Last month, we talked about Douglas Fairbanks Sr, one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1920's who made his career playing swashbuckling pirates and carefree good guys.  This month, we're going to talk about the man who would be, in many ways, the Sound Era's answer to Douglas Fairbanks, a man so absurdly handsome that he was destined to be the guy who got the girl, fighting his way through soundstages as a buccaneer and a rake.  He would also be, by most measures, one of the most scandalous figures in the history of Classical Hollywood, to the point where his personal life is still debated to this day.  This month's star is Errol Flynn.

Flynn was born in Tasmania in 1909, the son of a biology professor, and while he would spend his childhood in Australia, his ancestry hailed from the British Isles, and he would eventually end up in London when he went to boarding school.  Flynn would in many ways live the life he would eventually emulate onscreen in his early adulthood, being fired for being a thief and going fortune-hunting in Papua New Guinea, prospecting for gold.  A chance opportunity to appear in an Australian telling of the Mutiny on the Bounty (where Flynn would play Fletcher Christian) led him to go to London, and then Hollywood, to try his hand at acting.

Relatively soon into his time in acting, Flynn would star in Captain Blood, which would set a trio of precedents that would be hallmarks in his career.  First, he'd star with Olivia de Havilland, his leading lady in eight movies (the film would make them both household names).  Second, he would have huge success-for a time Flynn was one of the most reliable box office draws for Warner Brothers.  And third, he would be typecast in a way that never afforded him the eventual critical awards that would befall de Havilland (she has two Oscars, he was never even nominated).  Flynn's career is hallmarked by a number of attempts to get outside of his role as a roguish hero, one who clearly has a good heart even if he occasionally strays from the right side of the law, but it's not what the public wanted.  He would spend decades trying to get outside of that role, but he'd never achieve it-audiences wanted to root for Errol Flynn...

...which is why his movies are very much a situation where celluloid does not equal life.  Because off-screen, Errol Flynn has had everything from pretty much confirmed scandals (drug abuse and relationships with underage girls which would result in his career being sidetracked, though not forever) to the bizarre (everything from allegations of bisexuality & fascism to a unique friendship with L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology).  We've got a lot to cover, but we're going to attempt to get to all of it as we take a look at one of several polarizing actors we'll talk about this season.