Category Archives: Today’s Birthday

August 11, 2013

Steve Wozniak 8.11.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.” — Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak

Stephen Gary “Woz” Wozniak  was born on this day in San Jose, California in 1950. Today is his 63rd birthday.

Woz was always interested in electronics. Even as a kid he had the ability to build gadgets from scratch. He wasn’t a great student (he only stayed one year at UC Berkley) but he  was able to design the hardware, circuit boards and operating system for the original Apple computer on his own and with out a formal engineering degree.  (He later went back to UC Berkley under the name Rocky Clark — a combination of his dog’s name and his wife’s maiden name — and earned his Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences degree in 1986).

Apple I Computer

Apple I Computer (Photo credit: euthman)

He and friend Steve Jobs were members of a Palo Alto electronic hobby group called the Homebrew Computer Club and they premiered the Apple 1 at one of the groups meetings. Wozniak quit his job at Hewlett-Packard and he and  Jobs started Apple Computer  on April 1, 1976.

With Wozniak’s knowledge of electronics and Jobs’s marketing skills, the two were well-suited to do business together. Wozniak went on to conceive the Apple II as part of the company’s personal-computer series, and by 1983, Apple had a stock value of $985 million. [Biography.com]

Wozniak was severely injured in an airplane accident in 1981. It took two years before he returned to Apple. He eventually left the company in 1987.

Post Apple Woz founded CL 9, a company which developed the first programmable universal remote control. His Wheels of Zeus venture developed wireless GPS

Steve Wozniak thumbs up

Steve Wozniak thumbs up (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He pursued a lifelong goal  when he began teaching science and technology to kids from 5th to 9th grade.

Wozniak published his autobiography,iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. Three years later, he joined the Salt Lake City-based start-up Fusion-io as its chief scientist. [Biography.com]

Steve Wozniak - Apple Co-Founder

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Apple Computer, postaday, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

August 8, 2013

The Edge 7.8.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“Most groups, I think, would have been taking their foot off the gas at this point. But we have the exact opposite instinct. We are flooring this rock ‘n’ roll band, and we’re just interested to see where we will end up.” — The Edge

The Edge - U2 360 Tour - Toronto

The Edge – U2 360 Tour – Toronto (Photo credit: TonyFelgueiras)

David Howell Evans  was born on this day in Barking, Essex, England in 1961. He is 52 years old.

He is the middle of three children born to Garvin and Gwenda Evans. He has an older brother, Dick and younger sister, Gill. In 1962 his father, an engineer who worked for the electricity board,  was offered a promotion that involved a transfer to Dublin, Ireland.

He  attended St. Andrew’s National School and Mount Temple comprehensive School. He did well academically and showed interest in becoming a doctor or in following his father into engineering. But then musical fate intervened.

In the fall of 1976 he spotted Larry’s note on the Mount Temple Comprehensive High School bulletin board asking for anyone interested in forming a band. He was the first to respond, and he went to the first meeting in Larry’s house with his brother Dick. The Edge showed guitar skills well beyond his age, and the chemistry among the group was obvious from the beginning. [atU2.com]

Band lead singer, Bono, gave Dave his nickname “The Edge”.

U2 in 1980. Shown from left to right: Clayton,...

U2 in 1980. Shown from left to right: Clayton, Mullen, Bono, The Edge. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The nickname was inspired in the beginning by the sharp features of his face, but it also applied to his sharp mind and the way he always observed things from the edge. [Ibid]

As U2’s popularity increased Dave’s “unmistakable guitar sound — clean, sharp, incisive, and cutting-Edge” [Ibid] became part of the band’s trademark sound. Sometimes called an ‘anti-guitar hero’ because he eschews flashy solos, The Edge  uses a number of delay effects and reverb to make the groups sound “shimmer.”

He stepped into the philanthropic ring in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated the US’ Gulf Coast. He co-founded Music Rising a charity that replaces instruments lost because of the storm.

Dave plays piano/keyboards and sings on many of the band’s recordings in addition to his guitar duties.

Click here for the ritaLOVEStoWRITE BioBLOG on Bono

Bono and The Edge of U2 at Gillette Stadium, F...

Bono and The Edge of U2 at Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA 9/21/2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Bono, Dave Evans, postaday, The Edge, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, U2

August 6, 2013

Alfred Lord Tennyson 7.6.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.” — Tennyson

Deutsch: Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809-1892 englis...

Deutsch: Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809-1892 englischer Poet. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alfred Tennyson was born on this day in Somersby, Lincolnshire in 1809. Today is the 204th anniversary of his birth.

He was the fourth of 12 children born to the Reverend and Mrs. Tennyson. He began writing poetry as a child and by 12 he’d written a 6,000 line epic.  He and his brothers were home schooled by their father in the classics and modern languages. But Reverend Tennyson “suffered from depression and was notoriously absentminded” [TheLiteraryNetwork.com] problems “that were exacerbated by alcoholism.” [Poets.org]  The family struggled under Rev. Tennyson’s influence;

One of Tennyson’s brothers had violent quarrels with his father, a second was later confined to an insane asylum, and another became an opium addict. [Poets.org]
But Alfred and his brother Charles escaped to Trinity College, Cambridge. There they published Poems by Two Brothers. (1827).  The book attracted the attention of one of the school’s most popular literary clubs, the “Apostles.”And  Alfred became close friends with the group’s leader Arthur Hallam.
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, by George...

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, by George Frederic Watts (died 1904), given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1895. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

His next two books, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830), and Poems (1833), were dismissed by critics as “‘affected’ and ‘obscure.'” [Ibid]  Another tragedy hit in 1833 when Hallam died suddenly in Vienna. Tennyson did not publish again for 10 years.
The Lady of Shalott, based on The Lady of Shal...

The Lady of Shalott, based on The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1842 he finally released the two-volume Poems. It contained “The Lady of Shalott”, “The Lotus-eaters” “Morte d’Arthur” and “Ulysses” and “was a tremendous critical and popular success.” [TheLiteraryNetwork.com] Seventeen years after Hallam’s untimely death he immortalized his friend in the epic In Memoriam. With it “Tennyson became one of Britain’s most popular poets” [Ibid]

I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.

But who shall so forecast the years
And find in loss a gain to match?
Or reach a hand thro’ time to catch
The far-off interest of tears?

Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown’d,
Let darkness keep her raven gloss:
Ah, sweeter to be drunk with loss,
To dance with death, to beat the ground,

Than that the victor Hours should scorn
The long result of love, and boast,
`Behold the man that loved and lost,
But all he was is overworn.’

                        [exerpt from In Memorium A.H.H. , Click Here to read the whole poem]
Soon after he became Britain’s Poet Laureate.
At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry (at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year) allowed him to purchase a house in the country and to write in relative seclusion. … In 1859, Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in one month. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson. [Ibid]
Tennyson wrote into his 80’s penning plays as well as poems, “among them the poetic dramas Queen Mary (1875) and Harold (1876)”[Poets.org]. He died at 83 in 1892. He is buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey
The monument to Alfred Lord Tennyson on the Is...

The monument to Alfred Lord Tennyson on the Isle of Wight (Photo credit: Anguskirk)

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Poerty, postaday, Tennyson, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Writing

August 5, 2013

Barack Obama 8.4.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?” — Barack Obama

 

The official presidential portrait of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. [Image courtesy: Whitehouse.gov]

The official presidential portrait of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. [Image courtesy: Whitehouse.gov]

Barack H. Obama was born on this day in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. He is 52 years old today.

 

He is the only son of Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. His mother, who grew up in Kansas, was attending the University of Hawaii when she met Obama, Sr, an exchange student from Kenya. When the baby was still an infant, Obama, Sr. moved to Harvard to pursue his Ph.D.. The couple divorced in 1964 and Obama, Sr. moved back to Kenya. Dunham  then married Lolo Soetoro, a student from Indonesia.

 

A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Barack’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son’s safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them. [Biography.com]

 

Obama grew very close to his maternal grandparents.

 

He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton’s army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank. [Whitehouse.gov]

 

 

Stanley Armour Dunham, Ann Dunham, Maya Soetor...

Stanley Armour Dunham, Ann Dunham, Maya Soetoro and Barack Obama, mid 1970s (l to r) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

He attended the prestigious Punahou Academy, graduating in 1979 with academic honors. He went on to study at Occidental College in Los Angeles before transferring to Columbia University in New York. He graduate in 1983 with a degree in political science.

 

After working in the business sector for two years, Obama moved to Chicago in 1985. There, he worked on the South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities. [Biography.com]

 

He entered Harvard Law School in 1988 eventually becoming the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He also met his former wife Michelle Robinson while his was at Harvard.  He graduated magna cum laude, in 1991 and went back to Chicago to “help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.” [Whitehouse.gov]

 

His work in the community lead him to public office. He was an Illinois State Senator from 1997-2004 and was an US Senator for that state from 2005-2008.

 

Barack Obama's 2009 presidential inauguration ...

Barack Obama’s 2009 presidential inauguration in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

He was elected President of the United States  on November 4, 2009, having won 365 electoral  votes and 52% of the popular vote. He was reelected on November 6, 2012, with 332 365 electoral  votes and 51% of the popular vote.

 

English: Cropped version of File:Official port...

English: Cropped version of File:Official portrait of Barack Obama.jpg. The image was cropped at a 3:4 portrait ratio, it was slightly sharpened and the contrast and colors were auto-adjusted in photoshop. This crop, in contrast to the original image, centers the image on Obama’s face and also removes the flag that takes away the focus from the portrait subject. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

3 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in American History, Barack Obama, History, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, United States

July 27, 2013

July Creative Challenge, day 27: More or Less

By ritalovestowrite

[At the farmer’s market today I looked over the bountiful produce and baked goods and yummies. What should I get to highlight in my upcoming Muffin Monday blog? As I stood there enjoying a rare cool July morning I decided to get creative and think about my personal recipe. What would I do to alter my own ingredients to make a better “Me Muffin”? ]

Creativity Fairy

I was thinking that I should definitely add several ounces of additional PATIENCE in my daily dietary count of being-ness.

REGRETS?  I have a few… But there I think the scale is balanced.

There is an abundance of little JOYS. And smiles are easy to give, but you can’t really give them away because they bounce back. So the smile bank is always growing, yes?

There’s never enough TIME. And I find myself flitting from one task to the next like a hummingbird gathering nectar. But no matter how fast I fly I never seem to have enough time finish all my tasks, and my nectar meter is never quite full. I would add time if I could, but there are only so many minutes in a day.

I could do with fewer CALORIES. So maybe I could trade in some weight. That be nice. But, honestly, I don’t think in those terms until I look in the mirror, and I don’t really think in terms of mirrors.

If an ORGANIZATION fairy flew into my window I would make her a little plate of berries and tiny cookies and a petite cup of warm sweet milk. I would welcome her with the hope that she would help me straighten out the this and that about the place. Frankly, I would much rather write and create than organize.

Moments of FAITH are there for the taking. A touch stone of belief that never falters, no matter how much I question it or others question me. I could use a pinch more faith in my day, I suppose, but I’d want it well mixed in with the rest of me, and would not like it to be just sprinkled on top.

CREATIVITY is an ingredient in my daily life that tends to be a bit clumpy. It would be nice if it fell in a finely sifted snow of inspiration throughout the day instead of coming at me like chocolate chips morsels of illumination. Then again I don’t think that would prove as interesting as the current spark and dark method I dance.

 

Hmmmm. I’m wondering what YOU would adjust to your personal recipe. Would you turn up the heat? Would you spice up the ingredients? Drop me a line and let me know.

Leave a comment | posted in July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Writing

July 2, 2013

July Challenge Day 2: TUDOR

By ritalovestowrite

Here’s my post followed by some early entries to the Creative Challenge, day two…

[Background image: Pembroke Castle; courtesy: Wikimedia]

[My contribution to the Creative Challenge… a logo for a BBC style documentary on the family. Background image: Pembroke Castle; courtesy: Wikimedia]

I’m not a Tudor expert. Other people with a lot more knowledge of British History have written volumes and volumes on Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and the rest. Today’s blog doesn’t come close to telling the whole story of that family. But it is the birthday of Elizabeth Tudor, Henry the VIII’s little sister, so I thought I’d tell you a little bit about her.

English: Portrait of the Royal Tudors. At left...

English: Portrait of the Royal Tudors. At left, Henry VII, with Prince Arthur behind him, then Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), and Prince Edmund, who did not survive early childhood. To the right is Elizabeth of York, with Princess Margaret, then Princess Elizabeth who didn’t survive childhood, Princess Mary, and Princess Katherine, who died shortly after her birth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She was born in 1492, one year after Henry. Although she was just three years old when she died she was already a pawn in the marriage game the Tudors were so very “good” at playing. She was to be wed to Prince Francis. Had she lived she would have become Queen of France to his King Francis I. Alas the little girl died of atrophy in 1495.

Elizabeth spent much of her short life at the royal nursery of Eltham Palace, Kent, with her brother Prince Henry (the future King Henry VIII) and her sister Princess Margaret (later Queen of Scotland) under the guidance of a Lady Mistress, presided over by her mother. Elizabeth’s oldest brother, Prince Arthur, as heir to the throne, was brought up separately in his own household. [Find a Grave.com]

Her death, she was the first of the children to die young –Edmund and Katherine would also die in infancy — effected the family greatly. Her parents spent a lavish amount of money on her funeral and tomb. And Margaret and Henry were devastated by the loss of their little sister and play mate. (He was only 4 at the time.)

A decade later Arthur, the eldest and heir, would die too. Here is Henry with his surviving sisters Margaret and Mary.

English: Erasmus of Rotterdam visiting the chi...

English: Erasmus of Rotterdam visiting the children of Henry VII at Eltham Palace in 1499 and presenting Prince Henry (the future Henry VIII.) with a written tribute. Detail of oil painting in the Prince’s chamber in Westminster Hall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When the Court was sure that Arthur’s widow, Katherine of Aragon, was not with child,  Henry was made Prince of Wales and the heir apparent.  He also became betrothed to Arthur’s widow Katherine of Aragon to maintain the political alliance of the marriage brought with Spain. (He was 15, she was 21).

Here's my chart showing the marriages and offspring of the Tudors

Here’s my chart showing the marriages and offspring of the Tudors.

Henry VIII is, of course the central figure in this chart — I supposed that happens when you have six wives and change the church of a nation — but there are eight other heads of states on there (not including poor Jane Grey). That’s a lot of power in one family.

His older sister, Margaret, was married off to James IV of Scotland. She was the grandmother of  Mary Queen of Scots.

English: A picture of Margaret Tudor from &quo...

English: A picture of Margaret Tudor from “Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth” Deutsch: Ein Porträt Margaret Tudors aus “Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

His younger sister, Mary, was married first to Louis XII of France, a man 30 years her senior. He died two months later and Mary married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, in a secret ceremony, and with out Henry’s consent.  She was the grandmother of Lady Jane Grey.

Mary Tudor, Queen of France and subsequently w...

Mary Tudor, Queen of France and subsequently wife of Charles Brandon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

———————————————————————————————————-

Thanks to Bill and KL for playing along on the Creative challenge today… I like the way you think!

Please feel free to join them by commenting with your creative take on TUDOR or sending me an email.

Bill suggests a VW Beetle as our Tudor (or is it two door)…

[Image Courtesy: diecast.com]

[Image Courtesy: TheSamba.com]

KL sent in this gif for us. You have  to look closely at it to see why…

elizabethan

Liisa thought of a Tudor Rose — the rose that has red on the outside and a white center, the colors of the petals representing the joining of the York and Lancaster houses after the War of the Roses.

Tudor rose badge from the Pelican Portrait of ...

Tudor rose badge from the Pelican Portrait of Elizabeth I of England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Elizabeth I, England, Europe, History, July Challenge, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

June 27, 2013

Father James Keller 6.27.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: ‘It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.” — Fr. James Keller

[Image courtesy: Christophers.org]

[Image courtesy: Christophers.org]

James Keller was born on this day in Oakland, California in 1900. Today is the 113th anniversary of his birth.

The fourth of five children born to James and Margaret Keller, James grew up in an Irish Catholic household. He joined St. Patrick’s Seminar at Menlo Park, California and became interested in the Maryknoll missionaries in 1918.

 He entered Maryknoll and was ordained August 15, 1925. But, instead of going to China, he spent the next 20 years on assignment in the United States recruiting students and raising funds for Maryknoll missions. [Christophers.org]

Eventually he began to see that the people who came to his talks “could play a missionary role themselves,” [Ibid] beyond prayer and financial support for the organization.  The group’s goal was ” to motivate men and women in all walks of life to bring Judeo-Christian principles to bear on the world around them. ” [Ibid]

[Image courtesy: Christophers.org]

[Image courtesy: Christophers.org]

It was loosely organized with “no formal organization, no memberships, no dues. ‘The reason for this somewhat unusual formula.'” This grass roots group choose a Chinise proverb for their motto “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”  [Ibid]

Keller emphasized that each person has a God-given mission, that each person can make a difference, and that constructive action can work miracles.

Newsletters, books, news paper columns, radio and television programs followed. Here’s Hope In Action, a meditation that he wrote:

Hope in Action

Hope looks for the good in people instead of harping on the worst.

Hope opens doors where despair closes them.

Hope discovers what can be done instead of grumbling about what cannot.

Hope draws its power from a deep trust in God and the basic goodness of mankind.

Hope “lights a candle” instead of “cursing the darkness.”

Hope regards problems, small or large, as opportunities.

Hope cherishes no illusions, nor does it yield to cynicism.

Hope sets big goals and is not frustrated by repeated difficulties or setbacks.

Hope pushes ahead when it would be easy to quit.

Hope puts up with modest gains, realizing that “the longest journey starts with one step.”

Hope accepts misunderstandings as the price for serving the greater good of others.

Hope is a good loser because it has the divine assurance of final victory.

“In the world you will have trouble, but be brave: I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)

                            James Keller

Fr. Keller died on February 7, 1977.

2 Comments   |  tags: | posted in postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

June 25, 2013

Carly Simon 6.25.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite
The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It B...

The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Carly Elisabeth Simon was born on this day in New York City, New York, USA in 1945 She is 68 years old.

She was born into a musical family. Her father played piano (and was a co-founder of Simon and Schuster publishing house), her mom, Andrea, was a singer and civil rights activist. The family sang together in what Carly calls “the family choir” when the she and siblings Joanna, Lucy, and Joey were growing up in Riverdale, NY and Stamford, Connecticut.

Lucy & Carly – The Simon Sisters Sing for Children

Lucy & Carly – The Simon Sisters Sing for Children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She and sister Lucy formed the Simon Sisters and played at Greenwich Village clubs opening for the likes of “Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Dick Cavett and other soon-to-be-famous people.” [Carlysimon.com/Biography.html] Those late nights and long train rides from the city meant overdue papers and raised eyebrows at Sarah Lawrence College, and Carly dropped out. She moved to the south of France with her boyfriend and pursued her music full-time.

Three albums and a hit (Wynken, Blinken and Nod) later The Simon Sisters collaboration came to an end after Carly had a nervous breakdown (brought on by a wine allergy) and Lucy got married.

She was signed by Elektra Records in 1970 and released her first, self titled album in 1971. The record featured her hit “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.”

Simon says making her second album, Anticipation, “was one of the best memories I shall ever have of recording. I had a band. The entire album was just that band… there were strings on a few songs, but on the whole it was sparse and I loved it.” [Ibid]

Twenty-four albums and  nine compilations followed. Simon won three Grammy Awards — in 1972 for Best New Artist; 1990 for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture for “Let the River Run” (Working Girl); and in 2004  when “You’re So Vain” was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame. “Let the River Run” also won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, making it the first song to win the Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe trifecta. Simon was inducted to the songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Here’s a smattering of Carly Simon’s best…

And my personal favorite…

Related articles

2 Comments   |  tags: | posted in Carly Simon, Music, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

June 20, 2013

Errol Flynn 06.20.13 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“I allow myself to be understood as a colorful fragment in a drab world.”

 

“It isn’t what they say about you, it’s what they whisper.”

 

“By instinct I’m an adventurer; by choice I’d like to be a writer; by pure, unadulterated luck, I’m an actor.”

 

— Errol Flynn

 

English: The front cover of Errol Flynn's auto...

English: The front cover of Errol Flynn’s autobiography, “My Wicked, Wicked Ways”. The front cover is part of John Kobal’s Kobal Collection images. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was born on this day in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia in 1909. Today is the 104th anniversary of his birth.

 

Son of Theodore and Lily Mary “Marelle” Flynn, Errol had a knack for adventure and trouble,

 

 Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble.
Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school he was enrolled in. [IMDb]

 

That included Sydney Church of England Grammar School, the Shore School, which he managed to get expelled from for both fightiing and for having a romanitic assignation with the school’s laundress. [Per his autobiography “My Wicked, Wicked Ways”]

 

By the time he was in his late teens he’d left (or was ejected from) school for good and set out to find his fortune… literally…

 

he set out to find gold, but instead found a series of short lived odd jobs. Information is sketchy, but the positions of police constable, sanitation engineer, treasure hunter, sheep castrator, shipmaster for hire, fisherman, and soldier seem to be among his more reputable career choices. [Ibid]

 

By the early 1930s he was in England, and by 1933 his good looks, atheletic ability, and smooth voice had landed him a gig with the Northampton Repertory company. That same year he appeared in his first movie as Fletcher Christian on In the Wake of the Bounty. (Ironically, Flynn claimed that his mother descended from a midshipman of the Bounty).

 

Cover of "Captain Blood"

Cover of Captain Blood

 

Now that he had his sea legs under him, Warner Brothers signed him to a contract and he moved to America to star in Captain Blood.

 

He quickly rocketed to stardom as the undisputed king of swashbuckler films, a title inherited from Douglas Fairbanks, but which remains his to this day. Onscreen, he was the freedom loving rebel, a man of action who fought against injustice and won the hearts of damsels in the process. [Ibid]

 

He wasn’t fulfilled with the roles Hollywood was offering him.  Of the well over 50 movies he made he said, “I’ve made six or seven good films – the others, not so good.” He also noted, “I felt like an impostor, taking all that money for reciting ten or twelve lines of nonsense a day.”

 

Cropped screenshot of Errol Flynn from the fil...

Cropped screenshot of Errol Flynn from the film That Forsyte Woman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Off Screen he ran at life full throttle. He drank hard, romanced the ladies (especially the young ladies) and self-medicated with both legal and illegal drugs.  He lead –as author Benjamin S. Johnson put it–an “Errolesque” life. His hard living eventually caught up to him. His youthful, handsome face gave way to a puffy lined one. He was no longer able to do his own stunts. Roles came fewer and father between.  “A few good roles did come his way late in life, however…” [IMDb]  and he was finally “making a name as a serious actor before his death.” [Ibid] The Sun Also Rises (1957) was, perhaps the best performance of his career.

 

Flynn in The Sun Also Rises. [Image courtesy: Warner Brothers]

Flynn in The Sun Also Rises. [Image courtesy: Warner Brothers]

Flynn died  on October 14, 1959 of  myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, coronary atherosclerosis, liver degeneration, liver sclerosis and diverticulitis of the colon. Allegedly his last words were “I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.” He was 50 years old.

 

Related articles

 

 

This image shows a photograph of Errol Flynn, ...

This image shows a photograph of Errol Flynn, taken ca. 1940. Under Australian law, all photographs taken in Australia before 1955 are in the public domain. This image is in the public domain under both Australian copyright law and US copyright law. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

8 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Errol Flynn, Film, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, United States