Errol Flynn - Death

Death

Flynn flew with Aadland to Vancouver, Canada, on 9 October 1959, to lease his yacht Zaca to millionaire George Caldough. On 14 October, Caldough was driving Flynn to the airport when Flynn felt ill. He was taken to the Vancouver apartment of Caldough's friend, Dr. Grant Gould, uncle of pianist Glenn Gould. A party ensued, with Flynn regaling guests with stories and impressions. Feeling ill again, he announced "I shall return" and retired to a bedroom to rest. A half hour later, Aadland checked in on him and discovered him unconscious. Flynn had suffered a heart attack. According to the Vancouver Sun (16 December 2006), "When Errol Flynn came to town in 1959 for a week-long binge that ended with him dying in a West End apartment, his local friends propped him up at the Hotel Georgia lounge so that everyone would see him." The story is a myth; following Flynn's death, his body was turned over to a coroner (George Brayshaw), who performed an autopsy, and released his body to his next of kin. The results of the autopsy discovered that Flynn had a number of ailments including: "fatty degeneration of the liver, portal cirrhosis of the liver and diverticulosis of the colon." Years of hard living had apparently taken a toll on Flynn's body and an unnamed official from the coroner's office said the actor's body was that "of a tired old man—old before his time, and sick."

Errol Flynn is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California. Both of his parents survived him.