During the 1940’s the name Errol Flynn became synonymous with silver screen swashbuckling and romantic heroism.
The truth was a touch less glamorous; when Flynn tried to enlist in the army in 1942, he failed the physical exam due to cardiac problems (at 33 he had already had at least one heart attack), degenerative disc disease in his spine, chronic tuberculosis and numerous venereal diseases.
He was a physical wreck; as far from an action hero as you could imagine.
But there was an actual romantic action hero in the Flynn family; his name was Sean Flynn.
Sean was Errol’s only son with his first wife, French actress, Lili Damita.
He first appeared on television when he was 15, in an episode of his father’s television show.
Four years later he filmed a scene in his friend George Hamilton’s movie, Where the Boys Are and then, in 1961, he signed a contract to appear in The Son of Captain Blood, a sequel to his father’s most famous movie.
He also recorded two songs for Hi-Fidelity R.V. Records in 1961: “Stay in My Heart” and “Secret Love” before making a handful of films in Europe including two spaghetti westerns.
But he soon got bored with it - his father’s life was not for him.
He wanted real action.
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So he went to Africa and worked for a while as a safari guide and then as a game warden in Kenya.
But that was still too tame. So in January 1966 he went to Vietnam to try his hand as a freelance photojournalist, first for the French magazine Paris Match, then for Time Life and UPI.
It was soon clear that the same swashbuckling daring that his father had portrayed on screen was what Sean was actually good at in real life.
He soon made a name for himself, along with a group of other high-risk photojournalists, such as Dana Stone, Tim Page and John Steinbeck IV, men who would do anything to get a great picture, risking their lives daily on the front lines.
Soon Sean’s photographs were published right around the world.
In March 1966, he was wounded in the knee while filming a combat operation, but it did not deter him. After he recovered he made a parachute jump with the 101st Airborne.
The following year he went to Israel to cover the Arab-Israeli conflict but returned to Vietnam the following year. In 1970 he went to Cambodia when news broke of North Vietnamese advances there.
photograph: Steven Bell
On April 6, Flynn and Dana Stone attended a press conference in Saigon. They decided to return to Pnom Penh on motorcycles, disdaining the limousines the majority of the press corps used.
After the conference Flynn and Stone heard a rumour that there was a checkpoint on Highway I manned by the Viet Cong, so they rode off to see if there was a story in it.
Before they left, another correspondent, Steven Bell, snapped a photograph of them.
It was the last time the son of Captain Blood was ever seen alive. His body, and that of Dana Stone, has never been found.
Over the next decade Flynn’s mother spent a small fortune searching for her son, but with no success.
In 1984 she realized her son’s fate would never be known and had him declared legally dead.
https://www.youtube.com/jW7gy42
I wonder what happened to him. After watching Homeland, it makes me think anything is possible, even though that was a Hollywood production.
I’ve always perked up my ears when hearing anything about the family Flynn since the name is in my bloodline. I didn’t know about his son. Very cool, Colin!
It’s believed that he and Dana Stone were captured by the Viet Cong and later handed over to the Khmer Rouge and executed. But as you say, Susie, we will never know for sure! There has to be a good plotline in there somewhere.
Sad that he never made it back, but obviously died doing something he loved.