There can be no doubt that the Hollywood matinee idol Errol Flynn (1909 – 1959) was the Charlie Sheen of his day and thanks to the unrelenting press control that the Hollywood studios had on the fan magazines of that day, we probably only know about a quarter of his various debaucheries. He was a lush and a masher and the one law suit that the studio executives couldn’t kill was
“the great case against him for statutory rape which, had it stuck, would have given him jail for fifty years. For weeks in 1942 it replaced the war news in the headlines.”
Within the space of one year, Flynn had got entangled with two young lovelies: a Miss Betty Hansen, who was all of 17, and a Miss Peggy Satterlie, who was looking forward to being that age; but unlike the debonair characters Flynn was so well known for portraying on screen, he had to rely on drugs in order to get some measure of compliance from these ladies. It is all explained in the attached article.
In 1938, Flynn wrote an article in which he weakly defended the unique moral codes of Hollywood actors; you can read it here.
Click here if you would like to read another article about this trial.
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