Eric Flynn | |
---|---|
Born |
Eric William Flynn 13 December 1939 Hainan Island, China |
Died | 4 March 2002 Pembrokeshire, Wales |
(aged 62)
Cause of death | Cancer |
Occupation | actor |
Spouse(s) | 1) Fern 2) Caroline |
Children | 5 |
Eric William Flynn (13 December 1939 – 4 March 2002) was a British film and stage actor and singer.
Flynn was born on 13 December 1939 on Hainan, where his father was a Customs officer for the Hong Kong government. After the outbreak of war and the Japanese invasion of China, his family spent several years interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp (50 years later he would play a British prisoner in Steven Spielberg's Empire of The Sun, set in a Japanese prison of war camp in China).
He returned to Britain at the age of 13, and was educated at Chatham House School in Ramsgate. He then gained a scholarship to Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he met his first wife Fern.
Flynn had many television roles. He appeared as Alan-A-Dale in A Challenge for Robin Hood in 1967, as Germanicus Caesar in the ITV historical drama series, The Caesars, as Leo Ryan in the Doctor Who story "The Wheel in Space" in 1968, as Ivanhoe in a 1970 TV mini-series, and as Major Tom Graham in series five of Freewheelers in 1971.
He was also an established musical theatre actor appearing in shows such as Evita, Annie Get Your Gun,The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady, A Little Night Music, and Copacabana, starring alongside the likes of Lauren Bacall, Maria Freidman, and Suzi Quatro. He originated the role of Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company.