In 1935, Errol Flynn 25, first meet Olivia de Havilland 18, during the costume tests for Captain Blood. Warner Brothers was taking a big chance casting two unknowns in their most expensive movie.

Walking back from lunch together on that first meeting day, Errol asked Olivia, “What do you want out of life?”

Olivia tells the story;

“No one had ever asked me that question before or since. I said, ‘I’d like respect for difficult work done well’. Then I asked Errol what he wanted out of life. He said, ‘I want success.’ What he meant by that was fame and riches. Both of which he certainly did achieve. But when he said it, I thought ‘But that’s not enough.’ And indeed, it proved, in Errol’s life, not to be enough.”

The two went on to make eight movies together including Dodge City and the classic Adventures of Robin Hood. Olivia was 'deeply in love' with Flynn for three years, but never said anything to him.

Flynn finally professed his love for her on March 12, 1937 while dancing at a Coconut Grove nightclub event.

"I was deeply affected by him," Olivia said. "It was impossible for me not to be."

Even though, Errol was separated from his wife, Olivia needed a divorce before she could give herself to him.

A year later, Flynn re-united with his wife, so Robin and Marion never made it to Sherwood Forrest in real life. 

After a fight with Jack Warner in 1953, Flynn said; 

"The hell with them all. I'll go to Italy and make my own pictures. I’ll make a mint and show these guys I don’t need them or their studio. I have in mind a certain story on which I figure I'll make between ten and twenty million dollars."

Flynn put up $430,000 of his own money (8.3 million today) towards the $860,000 budget and started filming. He lost it all on the uncompleted The Story of William Tell when the Italian financiers failed to come up with their half of the promised money. 

Flynn made a comeback in 1957 co-starring with Tyrone Power in The Sun Also Rises.

While making Too Much, Too Soon, Flynn collapsed on the set.

The doctor at the hospital told the producer, “He’s dying. Better call his relatives.”

The producer pleaded, “But doctor, you don’t understand. We’re making a movie.”

Flynn miraculously recovered to finish the movie.

In 2008, Olivia 92, received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to an artist. She lived to be 104 and got what she wanted.

Errol lived till 50 and got the fame and riches he wanted and something else; an enduring myth of a friendly, devil-may-care movie star that wasn't afraid to thumb his nose at people in power.

Jack Warner once demanded, "Keep that son-of-a-bitch Flynn off the studio lot ... unless we absolutely need him."

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