Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 24 December 1958, page 56


Comeback for the fabulous

ERROL FLYNN in his

new film, "The Roots

o/ Heaven." He plays a disgraced British

Army officer who dis-covers a latent ideal-

ism. Born in Tas-

mania. Flynn worked in Sydney a clerk

before going overseas.

Errol Flynn

Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn, flat broke and a dis-carded movie has-been three years ago, today, at 49, owns assets totalling nearly £2,000,000 and has launched

on a new acting career.

LAST year the sight of Flynn's

friendly, boozy face peering from the screen as Ava Gardner's bibulous English boy-friend was one of the major consolations of "The Sun Also

Rises."

And this year he has consolidated his position with his work in "The Roots of Heaven," in which he co-stars with Juliette Greco and Trevor Howard.

Flyna got his first screen role in 1932, playing Fletcher Christian in the Australian film "In the Wake of the Bounty."

Two years later he was in Hollywood.

Among the 50-odd films he made have been "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The New Adventures of Don Juan," "The Dawn Patrol," "Dodge City," and "The Forsyte Saga," in which he played Soames.

But years of riotous living, riotous spend-ing (with their attendant headlines and court cases), and increasingly poor screen roles brought the dashing Flynn to a pass where he was considered virtually unemployable.

If producer Darryl F. Zanuck had listened to his advisers (a thing he seldom does), Flynn would not have been recalled from the limbo to play in "The Sun Also Rises."

Took a chance

Thinking about the requirements of the role of the expatriate Englishman in Ernest Hemingway's celebrated story, Zanuck de-cided to take a chance with the discredited Flynn.

And Flynn became the hit of the film.

Warner Bros., his old studio, then rolled out the red carpet and invited Flynn back to play the role of his former drinking com-panion and buddy, the late John Barrymore, in "Too Much, Too Soon," the story of John's daughter Diana.

When it came to the casting of the dis-graced Army officer, Forsythe, in his film version of Romain Gary's "The Roots of Heaven," Zanuck had no hesitation in re-engaging the actor he had gambled on before.

Flynn's new screen career is not alone responsible for the revitalised state of his

fortunes.

"Property I have in Jamaica, after lying valueless for years, has suddenly come good, and must now be worth about three million dollars," the ex-broke Mr. Flynn says happily.

And after years of negotiations, a trickle of money has started to come in from his ill-fated Italian independent production "William Tell," which he began in 1953.

Twenty minutes of this film cost £223,000 to make, and the affair ended in the bank-ruptcy court.

Marriage on rocks

Immediately after his marriage to Patrice Wymore, Flynn was so poor that the only place they had to live was on Errol's schooner, the one asset he had managed to salvage from a past in which he admits to having breezed through more than £3 million.

This marriage is about to be dissolved, and teenage actress Beverly Adland is spoken of as the fourth Mrs. Flynn.

Flynn's other wives were Lily Damita (their rows were among the noisiest and most celebrated in Hollywood), and Nora Eddington.

Lili Damita is said to be having a difficult time dissuading Flynn's 17-year-old son Sean against becoming an actor.

Flynn also has two teenage daughters, Deirdre and Rory, who live with their mother, Nora Eddington, and a four-year-old daugh-ter, Amelia, from his last marriage.

An incurable pitcher of tall tales, Flynn has written one supposedly autobiographical book, "Beam Ends," published in the early 'forties, and lately has been working on an-other. "Beam Ends" deals with his adven-tures in New Guinea.

Typical Flynnisms: "I have a great talent for spending." And of a recent girl-friend: "I may be too old for her, but she isn't too young for me."

TEMPESTUOUS

French star Juliette

Greco and Errol Flynn

in a scene from "The Roots of Heaven,"

which was shot in De

Luxe. Color Cinema-

Scope on a ten-week location in Africa.

FLYNN with co-stars

Trevor Howard and Greco, in a scene from his new film. Produced by the

spectacular Darryl F. Zanuck, it is a 20th Century-Fox release.