The Swashbuckler
from Life Sentences Podcast Hosted by Caroline Baum
Errol Flynn is still the most famous Australian actor ever to make it big in Hollywood. Best known for athletic and romantic leads in films like Robin Hood, he had lived the life of an entitled boss on plantations in New Guinea as a fortune hunter before being discovered on the beach at Bondi. His rapid rise to stardom in Hollywood was enabled by the powerful studio system operating at full tilt and by media complicity that burnished his image and relished the scandals of his many marriages. When he was put on trial for statutory rape in 1942, it only served to increase his popularity and fan base. A new biography by colonial historian Patricia O’Brien provides a fascinating and often shocking insight into Flynn’s behaviour and his values, as well as shedding light on his family’s shady background, his many under-age lovers, and his tendency to exaggerate wildly about his exploits.
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