My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Autobiography of Errol Flynn

This is probably the most enjoyable book I've ever read. Really. Mr. Flynn tells us the story of a life filled with adventure, emotional intensity, and humor. He also manages to convey the grittiness and desperation of his life at times, but he tells it all with dignity and style. He has the ability to write so that you can see it all, in your mind's eye, as if you were right there along with him. More importantly, as he takes you on his journey, he moves you to feel what he was feeling when it was happening to him. Want to go a step further? You can really go with him to Mandarin House, in Macau, China, where he gambled with a girl named Ting Ling. Just Google "Mandarin House". Want to see the hotel where Lili, his mad wife, threw a flower pot off the balcony at him on the street below? Google the "Plaza Athenee", in Paris. It looks like a nice place, with wide balconies, full of flower pots. I especially liked the part in the book where, as a young man, he meets his life long friend Hermann, and they go from New Guinea to London on cargo ships, trains, and anything that will get them closer to their destination. Along the way they get rich, and become penniless, over and over again. Another thing that makes this book a joy to read is that Flynn is a man of consciences, who does unconscionable things to survive. He was able to adapt to the circumstances he found himself in very well. He was a man who lived life without limits, but that takes a toll. When he died at age fifty, he had the body of an eighty year old man. So, who was Errol Flynn? He was a lovable little boy who was unloved and abused badly. He worked very hard to make of himself a successful and respectable man, but success slipped through his fingers, and he was ashamed of himself. When he was making Robin Hood he was a stunning figure of a man in good health and vigor, but he kept passing out on the set because of his many health problems. Women fell at his feet because of his looks and charm and stardom, but he was afraid of women because they destroyed his life. When everyone thought he was on top of the world, rich, and surrounded by beautiful women who adored him, he was really only sitting alone on the edge of his bed in the dark, with the muzzle of a revolver in his mouth. He was one of the most sophisticated men the world has ever seen, but he had the heart of a child. He describes himself as "a desperate and hard man doing what he had to, to get on". I'll take him at his word on that. The complexity of this poor damaged men, his good luck and terrible misfortune, and the extreme adventures he lived, make him a rare and awe-inspiring individual. In his wake he leaves behind the story of an amazing life. Read it.

Clay-footed Errol Flynn set me to thinking with his autobiography. Perhaps what struck me most was the extreme contrast between the first half of his life, living in unpretentious, free-spirited, straightforward, poverty stricken, primitive, basic-human-level, wild west culture in Tasmania, Australia and New Guinea....and then fairly quickly being whisked away to Hollywood, the most pretentious place on earth, with endless riches, glitz and glamour, inescapable contracts and obligations, contrived images and fakery, acceptable lies and liars, the value of money over authentic experience and art. Culture shock! It seemed that once Flynn either figured out what was happening to him and/or got bored with the whole Hollywood experience, an internal fist fight then ensued to reclaim his roots and his once free-wheeling spirit. In terms of evaluating his life, I recall a claim from him that "human nature" may not be the same all over the world as we like to think. In the world of his youth, men took young girls for wives or companions as common practice. They lived by their wits or the seat of their pants to survive what may be around the next corner. I would think New Guinea's head hunters and cannibals can take you to new heights of fear and clever tricks for survival. The lack of money and hunger (which was very real to him at times) and loose boundaries may have led to his crime sprees. Slave trade was acceptable as an extreme form of using people at that time. The use of fists or other minor "crimes" was a common medium for settling disputes. So many of the extreme experiences that shaped him during the first half of his life were at direct odds with the extreme culture he adopted for the second half. The book seems to be divided into three areas of focus: Pre-Hollywood, the pinnacle of his Hollywood fame and fortune, and his personal and professional decline. Using his charming story-telling style of writing, I found that what I liked about Errol Flynn most were his oft self-deprecating yarns and his brutal honesty about himself and how he saw his world. In one particular passage, he talks extensively about his many contradictions. By that time in the book, it was easy to see those in him. He didn't shy away from his own humanity and ran his life based strictly on reality. But I also came away seeing him as a lot better man than he gave himself credit for. I winced often and laughed often and by the time I got to "The End", I was in his corner for life! Anyone who can make me laugh this hard in the midst of so much pathos, confusion and chaos has something special going for him. I'm glad he shared his engaging, colorful life story with us just in the knick of time. It was his last narrow escape.

A good read. He's fairly blunt and candid about what a narcissistic jerk he was. You will not see him in the same light as some of his movies. Very charismatic not not a nice person.

Read the book 40 years back first and than now .

Cuando Flynn atterizo en Hollywood tenia 26 años y un pasado de vertigo. Y aunque el personaje emerge eticamente bastante despreciable (Chuleando y robándole a señoras de una cierta edad, traficando con indígenas en Selvas diversas) el libro está muy bien escrito - Las 200 primeras páginas son de novela de aventuras y el resto ya se centra en su carrera cinematográfica y demás líos de alcobas. English de fácil lectura y mas qué recomdable como lectura veraniega. Envío vía Correos rápido y cómodo.

Dont know if what Flynn writes is all true but it is certainly entertaining

Acknowledged as the best autobiography by a movie star, Errol Flynn's "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" is a revealing look at the man and Hollywood in it's Golden Era.. Detailing his early life in Australia and New Guinea, the book goes on to give his account of his tribulations including his well publicized rape trial. Highly recommended.

He certainly did a lot! Its a fun read by a character who would certainly be cancelled today, but secretly we admire for doing what we can't (on-screen or off).