Though Sean Flynn briefly pursued an acting career like his famous father, he realized that wartime photojournalism was his real passion — and tragically, it would also be his undoing.
Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/AlamyPhotojournalist Sean Flynn was just 28 when he vanished in Cambodia while covering the Vietnam War.
Flynn was a dashing figure, swashbuckling from adventure to adventure across the globe. His mischievous eyes saw something the rest of the world couldn’t, and he was able to communicate entire stories with them. Stories of pain, loss, human connection, and daring thrills. It may seem obvious that the Flynn in question is Errol, the action hero of Golden Age Hollywood — but, in fact, this legacy belongs to his son, Sean Flynn.
Though he began his life in his glamorous parents’ shadows, Sean Flynn eventually came into his own as a photojournalist. His specialty: war zones, especially in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
Sadly, his calling would also be his undoing, as he ultimately vanished without a trace in Cambodia in 1970 when he was just 28 years old. But Sean Flynn’s short life was full of passion, pumped up with adrenaline, and at least as adventurous as any character in his father’s movies.
Sean Flynn’s Early Life As Hollywood Royalty
Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection at UCLA/Wikimedia CommonsErrol Flynn and Lili Damita, the parents of Sean Flynn.
A prince of Hollywood, Sean Flynn was born on May 31, 1941, to Australian American actor Errol Flynn and French American actress Lili Damita. Though both parents were performers, Sean’s father was especially famous, nearly synonymous with popular adventure films of the 1930s and 1940s.
But young Sean didn’t stay in Hollywood for long. Lili Damita soon became fed up with her husband’s “wicked ways” — likely including his notorious affairs and his alleged predatory behavior — and left the Los Angeles area entirely with Sean when he was just a baby. Divorced from Errol Flynn, Lili Damita raised her son in the community of Palm Beach, Florida.
Here, Flynn the younger received a good education, as his mother tried to shelter him from the shadow of his father’s scandals. Sean Flynn also attended a boarding school in New Jersey, but it wasn’t long before he heeded the call of adventure — whether to echo his father, or spite him.
Actor George Hamilton was a childhood friend of Sean Flynn, and once remarked: “What his father was in the movies, Sean was in life.”
Sean Flynn’s Pursuit Of Adventure
Wikimedia CommonsSean Flynn starred in the 1962 movie The Son of Captain Blood, in which he depicted the son of a character his father famously played in Captain Blood.
As a teenager, Sean Flynn developed a love for travel while visiting Havana, Cuba. Later on, he went to Pakistan and Africa with the intention of hunting big game. At one point, he became a safari guide in Tanzania.
In a more transparent attempt to mirror his father, he briefly pursued a career as an actor in the 1960s. He made an uncredited appearance in the 1960 film Where the Boys Are and later starred in the 1962 film The Son of Captain Blood. He also accepted a number of other movie roles in Europe.
But if anyone thought that he was about to pattern his whole career after his father, they were mistaken. In one letter he wrote to his mother, he declared, “If father and M.G.M. want me to do a picture, they can all go to hell.”
Sean Flynn was soon to discover his true calling in life — and it was far more dangerous than any adventure movie plot.
The Former Actor’s Love Of Photojournalism
Ur Cameras/FlickrThough Sean Flynn briefly pursued an acting career, he soon found that his real passion was photography.
Eventually, Sean Flynn decided to take up photography. In typical Flynn fashion, he wasn’t capturing wedding ceremonies or graduation parties.
Instead, he decided to become a wartime photojournalist, taking pictures for publications like TIME and Paris Match. Flynn covered an Arab-Israeli conflict in 1967, but he completed his most famous work during the Vietnam War.
Not only did Flynn fearlessly parachute into combat zones right alongside American soldiers, but he was also credited with saving an Australian platoon by alerting them to a dangerous mine near them.
Flynn became more and more addicted to the danger. He famously documented a Viet Cong suspect hung upside down for interrogation and reported seeing Vietnamese children as young as 10 years old handling “rocket launchers and machine guns like cowboy toys.”
His pictures spoke a thousand words, but he tried to explain to those back home: “[Vietnam is] the only place in the world where anything’s happening.”
Inside The Sudden Disappearance Of Sean Flynn
Daily NewsA newspaper article about Sean Flynn’s dangerous photojournalism assignments during the Vietnam War.
Sean Flynn’s coverage during the Vietnam War wasn’t limited to just Vietnam itself. In 1970, he fatefully traveled to Cambodia, following some North Vietnamese troops who had advanced into that country.
On April 6, 1970, Flynn and some other photographers were leaving Phnom Penh when they learned about a checkpoint that was supposedly manned by the Viet Cong on Highway One. Flynn and another photojournalist, Dana Stone, couldn’t resist the opportunity to document the checkpoint and possibly even interview members of the Viet Cong themselves.
Though most Western journalists covering the Vietnam War traveled around in limos that had once been used by tourists, Flynn and Stone took off on motorcycles to complete the risky assignment.
Another reporter named Stephen Bell, who opted not to go with Flynn and Stone, later recalled, “We headed back to Phnom Penh and no one ever saw them again… I think they were among the first to go missing. It had not reached the point where we knew quite how dangerous it was.”
Inside Sean Flynn’s Tragic Legacy
Ur Cameras/FlickrThough it’s widely believed that Sean Flynn was captured by the Viet Cong and later killed by the Khmer Rouge, his remains have never been found.
Sean Flynn was indeed never heard from again after April 6, 1970. He was just 28 when he disappeared. Dana Stone, 30, also vanished without a trace.
The most widely repeated theory is that Flynn and Stone were both captured by members of the Viet Cong, held captive for as long as a year, and then killed by the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist movement in Cambodia that would ultimately rule the country from 1975 to 1979.
However, the young men’s remains have never been found, despite many searches, so their exact fate was never 100 percent confirmed.
Flynn’s mother Lili Damita was devastated by her son’s disappearance and presumed death, and spent a fortune trying to find out what exactly happened during her son’s final days and attempting to locate his body. “It has made an old woman of me,” she said of her despair.
Tragically, she never got the chance to properly bury her son, and she battled Alzheimer’s in her own final years before she died in 1994.
Though Flynn was not yet 30 when he vanished, he left an unforgettable mark on history by capturing one of the 20th century’s most infamous conflicts and bringing it home, despite facing danger before his demise.
Some sources claim that Flynn loosely inspired Dennis Hopper’s character in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. The 1992 miniseries Frankie’s House also featured Flynn as a character. Unsurprisingly, many have expressed an interest in creating a film that focuses more closely on Flynn’s story.
Though Errol Flynn may have played swashbuckling characters in movies, his son Sean Flynn pursued countless adventures in real life. It’s little wonder why many see his true story as a movie-worthy journey of its own.
Next, go inside the anti-Vietnam War movement in 39 photos. Then, learn about the fall of Saigon, the tragic final chapter of the Vietnam War.
