Sean Flynn | |
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Flynn (left) and Dana Stone (right), riding motorcycles into Communist-held territory in Cambodia on April 6, 1970
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Born |
Sean Leslie Flynn May 31, 1941 Los Angeles, California U.S. |
Disappeared | April 6, 1970 (aged 28) Highway One, Cambodia |
Status | Declared dead in absentia, 1984 |
Died | June 1971? |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Duke University |
Occupation | Photojournalist, actor |
Years active | 1956-1970 |
Parent(s) |
Errol Flynn Lili Damita |
Sean Leslie Flynn (May 31, 1941 – June 1971; declared legally dead in 1984) was an American actor and freelance photojournalist best known for his coverage of the Vietnam War. Flynn was the only child of Australian-American actor Errol Flynn and his first wife, French actress Lili Damita. After studying briefly at Duke University, he embarked on an acting career. He retired by the mid-1960s to become a freelance photojournalist under contract to Time.
In a search of exceptional images, he traveled with special forces units and irregulars operating in remote areas. While on assignment in Cambodia in April 1970, Flynn and fellow photojournalist Dana Stone were captured by communist guerrillas. Neither man was seen or heard from again.
In 1984, Flynn's mother had him declared dead in absentia.
Flynn first appeared in front of the cameras at the age of fifteen, when he appeared in an episode of his father's television show,The Errol Flynn Theatre. The episode, "Strange Auction," was broadcast in the U.K. in 1956 and in the U.S.A. in 1957. In 1960, at the suggestion of his friend, actor George Hamilton, Flynn filmed a scene in Hamilton's picture Where the Boys Are. Most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, but he can still be seen in a scene walking by wearing a blue "Xavier University" sweatshirt. In 1961, at the age of 20 (and after his father's 1959 death), Flynn accepted a contract to appear in the 1962 Il Figlio del Capitano Blood, a sequel to his father's hit film Captain Blood. The film was released in the U.S. in 1964 as The Son of Captain Blood. He made a few more films in Europe, including Il segno di Zorro (1963; released in 1964 as Duel at the Rio Grande), Verspätung in Marienborn with José Ferrer (1963; released in 1964 as Stop Train 349), Agent Special a Venise "Voir Venise et...Crever" (1964; sold to U.S. television syndication as Mission to Venice), and Sandok, Il Maciste della Jungla (1964; released in 1966 as Temple of the White Elephant).