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Flynn was famous for his drinking, womanizing, and brawling. His freewheeling, hedonistic lifestyle caught up with him in November 1942 when two underage chorus girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, accused him of statutory rape.[7] A group was organized to support Flynn, named the American Boys' Club for the Defence of Errol Flynn (ABCDEF); its members included William F. Buckley, Jr..[citation needed] The trial took place in January and February, 1943, and Flynn was cleared of the charges. The incident, however, served to increase his reputation as a ladies' man, which led to the popular belief that the term "in like Flynn" was based on Flynn's romantic exploits, but that may not be the case
In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathizer who spied for the Nazis before and during World War II. The book also alleged he was bisexual, and had affairs with Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes, and Truman Capote.
Subsequent biographies — notably Tony Thomas' Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel, 1990) and Buster Wiles' My Days With Errol Flynn: The Autobiography of a Stuntman (Roundtable, 1988) — have denounced Higham's claims as pure fabrication. Flynn's political leanings actually appear to have been leftist - he was a supporter of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War and of the Cuban Revolution, even narrating a documentary titled Cuban Story[12] shortly before his death.
In his biography of Flynn, Satan's Angel (2000), David Bret states that on the set of Captain Blood (1935), during the bare-chested flogging scene, Flynn loudly protested when director Michael Curtiz, fearful of incurring the wrath of the Hays Office, turned up on the set with a razor to cut off Ross Alexander's exhuberant armpits which "turned him on like twin fannies". "Errol grabbed this, and threatened to slit the director's throat should he remove so much as one hair from Alexander's 'magnificent oxters', so the scene was left uncut, and received few complaints."
In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathizer who spied for the Nazis before and during World War II. The book also alleged he was bisexual, and had affairs with Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes, and Truman Capote.
Subsequent biographies — notably Tony Thomas' Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel, 1990) and Buster Wiles' My Days With Errol Flynn: The Autobiography of a Stuntman (Roundtable, 1988) — have denounced Higham's claims as pure fabrication. Flynn's political leanings actually appear to have been leftist - he was a supporter of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War and of the Cuban Revolution, even narrating a documentary titled Cuban Story[12] shortly before his death.
In his biography of Flynn, Satan's Angel (2000), David Bret states that on the set of Captain Blood (1935), during the bare-chested flogging scene, Flynn loudly protested when director Michael Curtiz, fearful of incurring the wrath of the Hays Office, turned up on the set with a razor to cut off Ross Alexander's exhuberant armpits which "turned him on like twin fannies". "Errol grabbed this, and threatened to slit the director's throat should he remove so much as one hair from Alexander's 'magnificent oxters', so the scene was left uncut, and received few complaints."