Eric Flynn

Early life

Flynn was born on 13 December 1939 on Hainan, where his father was a Customs officer for the Hong Kong government. After the outbreak of war and the Japanese invasion of China, his family spent several years interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp (50 years later he would play a British prisoner in Steven Spielberg's Empire of The Sun, set in a Japanese prison of war camp in China).

He returned to Britain at the age of 13, and was educated at Chatham House School in Ramsgate. He then gained a scholarship to Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he met his first wife Fern.

Career

Flynn had many television roles. He appeared as Alan-A-Dale in A Challenge for Robin Hood in 1967, as Germanicus Caesar in the ITV historical drama series, The Caesars, as Leo Ryan in the Doctor Who story "The Wheel in Space" in 1968, as Ivanhoe in a 1970 TV mini-series, and as Major Tom Graham in series five of Freewheelers in 1971.

He was also an established musical theatre actor appearing in shows such as Evita, Annie Get Your Gun, The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady, A Little Night Music, and Copacabana, starring alongside the likes of Lauren Bacall, Maria Freidman, and Suzi Quatro. He originated the role of Bobby in Stephen Sondheim's Company.

Death

Eric Flynn died of cancer at his home in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on 4 March 2002, aged 62.

Family

Flynn's sons by his first marriage, Jerome and Daniel Flynn are both actors. He also had a daughter, Kerry, by his first marriage. Flynn married his second wife Caroline, a South African, in 1981. His daughter from his second marriage, Lillie Flynn, finished a three-year acting degree at The Central School of Speech and Drama in 2007 and his son, Johnny, is also an actor and singer.