Want to know the best Errol Flynn movies? How about the worst Errol Flynn movies? Curious about Errol Flynn’s box office grosses or which Errol Flynn movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Errol Flynn movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place.
Even though I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable movie buff, I knew very little about Errol Flynn before researching and writing this page. I basically knew two facts about Errol Flynn. One, he is the most famous Robin Hood of all-time and two, he made some pirate movies.
After a month of reading numerous books, checking out websites and watching a few documentaries on him, I am now much more familiar with the life and career of Errol Flynn. I would highly recommend checking out the Errol Flynn Blog for even more information on the life and times of Errol Flynn….just follow this link….The Errol Flynn Blog.
Errol Flynn (1909-1959) was born in Tasmania. As a child he used to play with a wooden sword that his parents told him had belonged to Fletcher Christian. Many times he would play on his grandfather’s boat…acting out Douglas Fairbanks pirate movies. This training would come in handy when he turned his attention to acting. He would appear in his first film when he was 24. By the time he was 26 he had already secured his first starring role in a big budget movie, Captain Blood. Captain Blood was a huge success and turned Flynn into a star. At 28 he turned into a superstar with his performance as Robin Hood in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood.
From 1935 to 1950 Flynn was one of the most successful actors in Hollywood. However his “playboy lifestyle” began to catch up with him. Starting around 1950 his movie career started to stall as his off screen lifestyle started to impact his health. He would regularly smoke at least a pack of cigarettes a day and drank heavily. Problems with his liver and heart eventually led to a fatal heart attack in 1959. Errol Flynn has 64 acting credits from 1933-1959. In the table below Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks 50 of his movies in 7 different sortable columns. Television roles, cameos, and shorts were not included in the rankings.
Errol Flynn Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Errol Flynn Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)… **** If the domestic totals are the same as the worldwide totals…then worldwide totals are unknown
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Errol Flynn movie received.
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
10 Possibly Interesting Facts About Errol Flynn
1. Errol Flynn was the first actor to play Fletcher Christian in a film that had sound. He played Christian in 1933’s The Wake of the Bounty…..later Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson would play the same part.
2. Errol Flynn and the Perry Mason connection. One of his first Hollywood movies was The Case of the Curious Bride…which was one of the first ever Perry Mason movies. Flynn got to play the corpse. Later Flynn would co-star with Raymond Burr in Mara Maru….Burr would later go on to fame playing Perry Mason on the television series.
3. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were one of the screen’s most popular couples. They would appear in 9 movies together from 1935 to 1943. Olivia de Havilland is still very much alive as she approaches the century mark.
4. Errol Flynn was married 3 times in his life. His first marriage to Lila Damita produced a son named Sean. His second marriage to Nora Eddington produced two daughters named Deirdre and Rory. His final marriage to Patrice Wymore produced one daughter named Arnella.
5. His son Sean, followed in his dad’s footsteps and has 10 IMDB credits to his name. His most famous movie role was in The Son Of Captain Blood (1962). The Son of Captain Blood was a sequel to the movie that made Errol Flynn famous, Captain Blood(1935). Later Sean Flynn turned towards a career as a freelance photojournalist. Sadly, Sean Flynn went missing while on assignment in Cambodia in 1970.
6. The saying …”In Like Flynn” became popular when Flynn was tried for statutory rape in 1942 but was acquitted….during the very high profile case, comedians of the day started to use the saying and it caught on.
7. His drinking was legendary.…he would inject oranges with vodka and eat them during his breaks so no one would know he was drinking on the set….during a play in the late 1950s his assistant would stage alcohol throughout the set, so Flynn could drink while performing.
8. Errol Flynn and Alan Hale Sr. (one of my favorite character actors) appeared in 11 movies together. Alan Hale Sr. was the father of Alan Hale Jr….better known as The Skipper on Gilligan’s Island.
9. The movie My Favorite Year is based on Mel Brooks’ encounter with Flynn on a television show in the 1950s….in that movie Peter O’Toole played the Flynn character. Also Jude Law portrayed Errol Flynn in The Aviator.
10. Check out Errol Flynn’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s Epic Errol Flynn You Tube Video
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Errol Flynn was a movie star back in the day when there were genuine movie stars who lived their lives 24/7 as if they were in a constant screenplay. Thanks for your hard work on this replay of his career and the interesting trivia tidbits.
Hey drbj….thanks very much for the visit. I think you are 100% correct he lived his life 24/7 as a movie….too bad it was so short….when writing this hub numerous other actors came to mind….Steve McQueen did the same exact thing….get bad medical news and told to slow down on the drinking and smoking….and what did McQueen and Flynn do? Partied even harder than before.
Enjoyed this movie oage very much. I have The Adventures of Robin Hood on VCR tape. Cogerson, the movie I mentioned is INSTANBUL with Cornell Borchers – it is a love story along with mystery. I think that he was a good actor and have seen many of his movies many times. Would love to see Instanbul again – seen it two or three times.
Hey BERN1960…glad you were able to figure out which Errol Flynn movie you liked so much. Istanbul was one of his last movies he made….and I will be sure to keep my eye out for that one in the future.
I am sure that VHS copy of Robin Hood is in good shape…but I would highly recommend the Blu-Ray version that is out there…..crystal clear quality. Thanks for the compliment it is greatly appreciated.
Another great movie page! I watched a bio special on TCM last year during their Summer Under the Stars marathon. I didn’t know much about him either but he seems to be the first action star of the studio system. There were others, but that seemed to be his niche. He also seemed to make a great team with Olivia de Haviland.
And when I heard what “In Like Flynn” means, I just about stopped using it. Thanks for the trivia :).
Hey Alecia…I think I just watched the same documentary that you mentioned….I think he was the first rock star….sex, drugs, and rock and roll until you drop appears to have been his life’s motto. And like many that live that way that do not seem to last very long.
So far I have only seen one of the Oliva/Errol movies but I will be checking out more in the future…..with the Ronald Reagan Santa Fe Trail high on the list….not sure if I have ever wanted to see a Reagan film before…..but I read that Reagan holds up well against Flynn in that movie…thanks for the comment.
An excellent fact-filled movie page on one of my favorite’s from the golden age of Hollywood, kudo’s Bruce!
One of the first films I remember taping off the telly in the early 80’s was The Adventures of Robin Hood. I watched it on VHS many times back then, still my favourite swashbuckler. The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood are also big faves.
Good to see Robin Hood at no.1 on your moviescore, surprised to see Gentleman Jim at no.2 though it is a good film.
I’ve seen 24 of the 50 listed, not as many as I thought.
8 from the box office top 10 and 9 from the ctitics 10.
I havent seen Uncertain Glory, Thank your Lucky Stars (was he in that?) or That Forsyte Woman.
Enjoyed the trivia, 9 films with De Havilland! His son went missing, didn’t know that.
Well done amigo, another great page to add to the list.
Hey Steve….thanks for the visit. I am now up to having seen 5 of his movies…and 3 of them have been in the last 48 hours. I have seen Robin Hood at least 20 times but I am sure you can make that same claim.
He was indeed in Thank Your Lucky Stars he got to play the Fred Astaire part as he evidently sings and dances during his part….Bogart is also in the movie but I do not think he sings and dances.
As for Gentlemen Jim…it is his 2nd biggest box office hit and 4th best according to critics and audiences….which gave it such a high ranking. It is actually one of the 5 I have seen….I liked it a lot….especially Alan Hale as his father.
MY LATE MOTHER BACKED ONTO THE FLYNNS HOUSE IN TASMAINIA AND SHE TOLD ME MANY TALES ABOUT WHAT YOUR ERROL FLYNN DID WHEN HE WAS A YOUNGSTER
That sounds very cool Alan. I image those would be some very interesting stories.