Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Gratuitous Sean Flynn

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As far as reputations go, Errol Flynn's casts a long shadow. Think of that part in Wonder Boys where Michael Douglas makes up the passage from his biography about Flynn's proclivity for sprinkling lamb on his dick - it's funny because it seems possible! But while Errol had several children by three different wives, he only had one son - Sean Flynn, born in 1941 to Errol's first wife, the gorgeous French actress Lili Damita. As you can see, the genes were good.

Sean did a little bit of acting (including a 1962 sequel to his father's Captain Blood called you guessed it Son of Captain Blood) but apparently found it boring, and so he became a photo-journalist; he actually became well-regarded for his daring war coverage. Unfortunately he was captured by guerrillas in Cambodia in 1971, and killed sometime thereafter (his body's never been found).

Yeah that part's depressing. A Clash song was written about him, and supposedly there's a screenplay being worked on based on the book Two of the Missing, which is about him and his fellow journalist Dana Stone, who also went missing. Who could play him, you think?

Sean shouldn't be confused with his sister's son who is an actor now and is also named Sean; he was on the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101. There's also another grandson named Luke Flynn who acts. The legacy goes on. Alright hit the jump for more of Sean the elder...



















8 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

i never knew about this person and now i want the movie version

joel65913 said...

So handsome, you can really see Errol in a couple of the pictures but he had his own attractiveness. A real shame about his fate, he seemed so talented and directed.

Surely there's a fascinating film in his story.

The Bloody Munchkin said...

You always spotlight the most unusual stories I've never heard of before. I'm with Nathaniel. Didn't know this guy even existed until now, but wow is he intriguing.

As for who should play him, hear me out; Theo James or Ethan Peck. Some of the earlier pictures you posted reminded me of Ethan, while some of the later pictures made me think of Theo.

Doug said...

In the first pic he reminded me of Brad Rowe, who probably doesn't look that good anymore. :(

joel65913 said...

As to who could play him in a movie, if it's a physical match they wouldn't have to look any further than Luke Flynn. I've never seen him in anything so I don't know if he can act but the resemblance is uncanny. Bradley James might also work.

Unknown said...

It's mostly from that last photo, but perhaps Taylor Kinney could pull it well enough?

native1 said...

Wow! Thank you for this post. I met Sean. He had gone to private school with five of my fraternity brothers and he came to visit them. He bunked with me because I had an empty bed in my room that weekend. Super nice; not at all stuck up or pretentious and, of course, drop dead gorgeous. Really sad how he died and such a shame because he did have it together.

fotoguy-n-sc said...

I've been fascinated with Sean since seeing a photo of him in an "In Touch" magazine in the earlier 80's. Thank's for the many photos I've never seen before. He was a true beauty and his story needs to be told!