ERROL FLYNN, Australian actor (d. 1959); What a surprise to most people when the news broke that this greatest of Hollywood womanizers also slept with men. Flynn, of course, had made his reputation on his body and on his magnificent Black Irish good looks, so it made no difference whatever that he couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. When he smiled that dazzlingly wicked smile of his at the camera, he melted panties and B.V.D.s in darkened theaters all over the world.

The actor’s trial for rape during WWII only increased his popularity, thanks to the candid details printed in the daily newspapers, even though by modern standards one would be hard-pressed to know whether the two girls in question had actually been raped or whether Flynn had been engaged in building a secret munitions depot for the Allies.

“And then what did Mr. Flynn do?”
“He took out this thing.”
“And what did Mr. Flynn do with this thing?”
“He told me to close my eyes.”
“Yes?”
“He took his pleasure with me.”
“You mean you had sexual intercourse?”
“I think so.”

Well buckle my swash! I mean, a stud like that could have whomever he wanted, the cream of the crop, the salt of the earth, the most desirable men and women in the universe. Flynn’s biographer, a tease if there ever was one, finally names only three men, two of them, uh, Truman Capote and Howard Hughes. Oh, well. It gives new meaning to the old phrase, “In like Flynn.”