Today in History - October 14: The Australian film legend buried with six bottles of whisky

Hellraising film star Errol Flynn, the first action hero of Hollywood, died on October 14, 1959, at the age of 50.

Flynn was born in Tasmania to a respected middle-class family, but by his teenage years he was set on a lifelong course of heavy drinking, womanising and causing mayhem.

He was sent to some of Australia's top private schools, and was expelled from nearly all of them.

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Later he travelled to Papua New Guinea where he worked as a plantation supervisor, but fled when he was accused of murdering a local resident.

In 1933, the rugged and handsome Flynn got his first taste of acting in Sydney, taking the lead role in a play about the Mutiny on the Bounty.

His stage performance attracted rave reviews, persuading him to move to the UK where he joined a repertory company.

Two years later, Flynn's big break came, when Hollywood film producer Jack Warner cast him in the title role of the swashbuckling classic Captain Blood.

The movie's popular success established Flynn as a dashing adventurer.

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He went on to star in more hit costume dramas, such as The Charge of the Light Brigade and the Sea Hawk. But his portrayal of the English folk hero Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood was the film he's best known for.

Meanwhile, his notorious off-stage life of heavy drinking, drug taking and womanising gained him notoriety.

Flynn reputedly started drinking champagne before breakfast before consuming hard liquor from lunchtime.

When a film producer banned him from touching alcohol during a shoot, he arranged for oranges to be injected with vodka and sent to the movie studio where he ate them as part of an apparent health kick.

The actor was married three times and had four children, but had little interest in remaining faithful to his wives. Flynn's lovers included fellow Hollywood stars Anita Ekberg and Lupe Velez.

In 1942 he was charged by US authorities with the rape of two teenage girls, but was acquitted.

But the damage to Flynn's image was severe, and from the late 1940s, a waning career added to mounting health problems caused by his hedonistic lifestyle.

During a visit to the Canadian city of Vancouver he died of a heart attack.

He was later buried in Los Angeles - with six bottles of whisky in his coffin.

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