Remains of Errol Flynn's Son Spark Feud in Cambodia

Forty years have passed since Vietnam War correspondents Sean Flynn, left, and Dana Stone, right, rode bright red motorcycles into Communist-held territory in Cambodia on April 6, 1970 and were never seen again (Perry Deane Smith / MCT / Landov)

Sunday, May 02, 2010
By Brendan Brady, Phnom Penh
The Time Magazine

Sean Flynn's towering stature and matinee-idol looks made him stand out during his years as a combat photographer in Indochina. The remains of his body, however, have proven more elusive. For years, official and unofficial efforts to recover the body of Hollywood swashbuckler icon Errol Flynn's son have come up empty-handed. Now, 40 years after his abduction, two men say that a gravesite they uncovered in the Cambodian countryside is likely to be his — and their claim has generated a flurry of excitement, skepticism and resentment.

In the late 1960s, American Sean Flynn abandoned a lukewarm film career to join a band of intrepid journalists documenting the civil wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. At first, Flynn drew international attention merely by virtue of being the even-more-handsome son of his movie-star father entering a combat zone. He and his colleagues' brazen lifestyle and daring work in the field became the stuff of legend and inspired a cast of colorful characters in war films and literature. More significantly, their photos, shot within the frenzied theater of combat, became pivotal in exposing Americans at home to the brutality and ambiguous profit of their military's involvement in the region. But the contribution was not without cost: At least 37 journalists were killed or went missing in Cambodia during its 1970-1975 war fought between the U.S.-backed military government and the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge.

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