Personal life

Career

He plays guitar and piano, and sings in a band named Gene Wilder (after the actor) with friends and fellow actors Brian McGuire and Brett Roberts. He formerly played for Antoneus Maximus & The Nuthouze Band who had been playing gigs at local venues in Los Angeles. Their first album in 2004 included guest appearances by such luminaries as Apl.de.Ap, DjMotiv8 and Dante Santiago from Black Eyed Peas as well as Kid (Chris) from Kid 'n' Play.

Filmography

References

External links

Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:American film actors Category:American rock guitarists Category:Actors from Michigan Category:American musicians of Vietnamese descent Category:Native American musicians Category:Native American actors Category:American actors of Asian descent

Sean Leslie Flynn (born May 31, 1941, in Los Angeles, California; disappeared April 6, 1970, in Cambodia, age 28; declared legally dead in 1984) was an American actor and freelance photojournalist best known for his coverage of the Vietnam War. He started a news service in Saigon with John Steinbeck IV, son of the American author.

Flynn was the only child of the marriage of Errol Flynn and Lili Damita. After studying briefly at Duke University, he became a movie actor like his parents. When he retired from acting, Flynn became a freelance photojournalist under contract to Time. In a search for exceptional images, he attached himself to Special Forces units and even irregulars operating in remote areas.

Entertainment career

Flynn first appeared in front of the cameras at the age of 15, when he appeared in an episode of his father's television show,The Errol Flynn Theatre. The episode, "Strange Auction," was filmed in 1956. (The show was produced and broadcast in the U.K. in 1956 and was broadcast in syndication in the U.S.A. in 1957.) In 1960, at the suggestion of his friend, actor George Hamilton, Flynn filmed a scene in Hamilton's picture Where The Boys Are. (Most of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, but he can still be seen in a scene walking by wearing a blue "Xavier University" sweatshirt.) In 1961, at the age of 20 (and after his father's death), Flynn accepted a contract to appear in a sequel to his father's hit film Captain Blood, The Son of Captain Blood (1964—year of U.S. release), also known as Il Figlio del Capitano Blood (1962, year of initial European release), a European production. He made a few more films in Europe, including, Il Segno di Zorro (1963, year of initial European release), aka Duel at the Rio Grande (1964, year of release of English version). He also starred in Stop Train 349 (1964) with José Ferrer, aka Verspätung in Marienborn (1963, year of initial European release), Mission to Venice(1964), aka Agent Special a Venise "Voir Venise et...Crever" (1964) and Sandok, Il Maciste della Jungla (also 1964), aka Temple of the White Elephant (1966, year of release of English version).

Flynn became bored with acting and went to Africa in late 1964/early 1965 to try his hand at safari guide and big game-hunting. He also tried his hand at being a game warden in Kenya. In the latter part of 1965, he needed money, and made two Spaghetti Westerns back-to-back in Spain and Italy. (Sette Magnifiche Pistole and Dos Pistolas Gemelas, both receiving initial European release in 1966.) In the summer of 1966, in need of money again, Flynn went to Singapore to star in his eighth and final film, the French-Italian action film, Cinq Gars Pour Singapour (1967-year of initial European release), aka Five Ashore in Singapore (1968—year of release of English version). After its completion, he gave up acting for good.

Flynn also tried his hand as a singer; recording two songs for a company known as Hi-Fidelity R.V. Records in 1961. The two songs were released regionally as a 45rpm single, "Stay in My Heart" b/w "Secret Love" (Arvee 5043). The single is now considered a very rare collector's item.

Flynn the journalist

In March, 1966, Flynn was wounded in his knee while in the field. In mid-1966, he left Vietnam long enough to star in his last movie. He returned to Vietnam and made a parachute jump with the 1st. Brigade, 101st Airborne Division in December, 1966. In 1967, he went to Israel to cover the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. He returned to Vietnam in 1968, after the Tet offensive, with plans to make a documentary about the war. In the spring of 1970, he went to Cambodia, when news of North Vietnamese advances into that country broke.

Disappearance

Flynn's mother, Lili Damita, spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, with no success. In 1984 she had him declared legally dead.

The story of Sean Flynn was immortalized by The Clash in the song "Sean Flynn" from the album Combat Rock. He is a major character in Michael Herr's Dispatches. He was portrayed by Kevin Dillon in the 1992 mini-series Frankie's House.

In June 2008, Mythic Films optioned the rights to the Perry Deane Young memoir, Two of the Missing. Young is working on a screenplay with director Ralph Hemecker.

In March 2010, a British team searching for Flynn's body thought they had found it, when they uncovered the remains of a Western hostage allegedly executed by the Khmer Rouge. Tests results on the human remains found at the grave site in eastern Kampong Cham province, Cambodia were released on June 30, 2010 and they were found not to be the remains of Sean Flynn. Lt. Col. Wayne Perry, JPAC spokesman said there was no match between DNA from the recovered remains and DNA samples they had on file from the Flynn family.

See also

References

External links

Category:American actors Category:American journalists Category:American photographers Category:American photojournalists Category:Duke University alumni Category:People declared dead in absentia Category:Missing people Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:War photographers Category:American people of Australian descent Category:American people of French descent Category:People executed by the Khmer Rouge Category:Photography in Cambodia Category:Photography in Vietnam Category:1941 births Category:People murdered in Cambodia Category:20th-century actors

Early life

Career

Two years later, Araki made a name for himself on the festival circuit with Long Weekend (o' Despair). Produced, directed, written, photographed and edited by Araki (for his own Desperate Pictures Company), this very small-scale Big Chill derivation involved a group of recent college graduates brooding over their futures during one woozy, boozy evening.

He followed this up in 1992 with The Living End, a road movie about two HIV-positive men whose paths cross one fateful day and the tumultuous relationship which ensues. The film starred Craig Gilmore and Mike Dytri, and featured Mary Woronov (who appeared in several "underground" films by Andy Warhol) and cult favorite Paul Bartel. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.

Araki's next three films comprised his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy."

Totally Fucked Up (1993) (Totally F***ed Up in publicity) chronicled the dysfunctional lives of six gay adolescent people who have formed a family unit and struggle to get along with each other and with life in the face of various major obstacles. Araki himself classified it as "A rag-tag story of the fag-and-dyke teen underground....A kinda cross between avant-garde experimental cinema and a queer John Hughes flick". The movie explored the young people's depression and misurany.

The Doom Generation (1995) was a black comedy brimming with graphic violence, cultural symbolism and relentless eroticism. The film starred Rose McGowan, Johnathon Schaech and James Duval (who had starred in Totally Fucked Up), with cameos by indie favorite Parker Posey, comedienne Margaret Cho, 21 Jump Street actor Dustin Nguyen, The Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight, The Love Boat star Lauren Tewes, Hollywood madame Heidi Fleiss and musician Perry Farrell. While largely trashed by critics, the piece won a measure of respect in a number of circles and is available on DVD and VHS in both rated and unrated versions due to several sex scenes as well as the violent climax.

Nowhere (1997) was described by its director as "A Beverly Hills, 90210 episode on acid". It centered around a group of bored, alienated adolescent people in Los Angeles during a typical day of kinky sex, drugs, and the requisite wild party. Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Debi Mazar, Christina Applegate, Heather Graham, Ryan Phillippe, Jaason Simmons, Scott Caan and Mena Suvari starred in the film, with cameos by Beverly D'Angelo, Facts of Life star Charlotte Rae, Traci Lords, Shannen Doherty, Rose McGowan, John Ritter and International Male and fitness model Brian Buzzini.

Araki's subsequent effort, the romantic comedy Splendor, told the story of a woman (Kathleen Robertson) who cannot choose between two men (Johnathon Schaech and Matt Keeslar) and so decides to live with them both. Splendor was both a response to the controversy surrounding his relationship with Robertson and an homage to screwball comedies of the 1940s and '50s. Hailed as the director's most optimistic film to date, it made its premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Araki's next venture was the ill-fated MTV series This Is How the World Ends (2000), which was meant to have a budget of $1.5 million. The network only gave him $700,000 and hoped to find partners to finance the difference. Araki offered to make the pilot episode for $700,000, and MTV took him up on it. After the pilot was shot, however, it was not picked up for broadcast, there are however circulating the internet bootleg copies of the ill-fated mini series.

Following a short hiatus, Araki returned with the critically acclaimed Mysterious Skin (2005) based on a novel by Scott Heim, which tells the story of a teenage hustler and a withdrawn young man obsessed with alien abductions, and how they both deal with the sexual abuse they suffered from their Little League coach when they were children. With this movie Araki found critical acclaim and a generally good public reaction.

Araki's ninth feature, made in 2007, was the stoner comedy Smiley Face, starring Anna Faris, which he directed with a screenplay by Dylan Haggerty. Araki wanted to make a comic film after shooting the more serious and darker film, Mysterious Skin. Critics have mentioned the potential of this film in becoming a "cult classic".

Araki's tenth film Kaboom made its premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and was awarded the first ever Queer Palm for its contribution to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. The film is currently awaiting release.

One consistent feature of Araki's work to date is the presence of music from the shoegazer genre as film soundtracks, first seen on Totally Fucked Up and heavily so on the films Nowhere and Mysterious Skin (even going so far as to employ Robin Guthrie to oversee the latter's score). Both The Living End and Nowhere are named after tracks by shoegazing bands (The Jesus and Mary Chain and Ride respectively).

Personal life

Filmography

References

External links

Category:1959 births Category:Bisexual people Category:American film directors of Japanese descent Category:LGBT directors Category:Living people Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:University of Southern California alumni