Nora Eddington (February 25, 1924 – April 10, 2001) was an American actress and socialite. She was best known as the second wife of actor

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...

. Eddington appeared in several minor film roles.

Background and early life

Born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1924, the daughter of Jack Eddington of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's office,Flynn, Errol ''My Wicked, Wicked Ways'', p. 330 Nora Eddington was nineteen when she met Errol Flynn in February 1943 – at the time, she was working at the courthouse where Flynn's notorious 1943 trial for

statutory rape In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behavior). Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual ...

was taking place. Flynn was

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as criminal law is concerned. The finality of an acquittal is dependent on the jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the ...

and they were married in 1944 in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Their daughter, Deirdre, was born on January 10, 1945. By the time their second daughter, Rory, was born in March 1947, their marriage was already essentially over. The couple were divorced in 1949, but parted on fairly amicable terms, with Eddington (now Eddington Flynn) given custody of the children. Zaca-Hayworth-Birthday-1946

Shortly after the divorce she married singer

Dick Haymes Richard Benjamin Haymes (September 13, 1918 – March 28, 1980) was an Argentinian singer and actor. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host, ...

, on July 17, 1949. She and Haymes had been having an affair for some time, a fact which became public knowledge by way of the gossip columns. Her marriage to Haymes, during which she suffered a miscarriage, lasted four years, a period which Haymes later characterized in an unpublished autobiography as "not a Dick Haymes marriage". After divorcing Haymes she married Richard Black, a marriage which lasted for most of the rest of her life – they had a son named Kevin, who died from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

at the age of 10. Richard and Nora Black divorced sometime before her death. Nora Eddington with Peter Lawford, 1949

Eddington was highly critical of Charles Higham's biography of her first husband, ''Errol Flynn, the Untold Story'', stating to Maggie Daly of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'': "I resent Higham's book because it is a fraud. He hasn't come up with a single document about Errol's supposed tie-in with the Gestapo, but continues to go around the country saying he has". Her own book about her life with Flynn, entitled ''Errol and Me'', was published in 1960.

Career

Films in which Eddington appeared included ''

Adventures of Don Juan ''Adventures of Don Juan'' is a 1948 American Technicolor swashbuckling adventure romance film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Errol Flynn and Viveca Lindfors, with Robert Douglas, Alan Hale, Ann Rutherford, and Robert Warwick. Also in ...

'' (1948), in which she portrayed the lady in the carriage asking for directions (uncredited) and ''

Cruise of the Zaca ''Cruise of the Zaca'' is a short documentary on 16mm about a trip taken by Errol Flynn in 1946 on his boat the '' Zaca'' to collect specimens with his father, Professor Theodore Thomson Flynn, an eminent marine biologist. The trip was done in as ...

'' (1952), playing herself.

Death

Eddington died in 2001, aged 77, after a long battle with kidney disease, at

Cedars Sinai Hospital Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over 2 ...

, Los Angeles. She was interred in

Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary is a cemetery and mortuary located in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, with an entrance from Glendon Avenue. The cemetery was ...

beside her son Kevin.

References & footnotes

Bibliography

*Flynn, Errol. ''My Wicked, Wicked Ways: the Autobiography of Errol Flynn.'' Intro. by Jeffrey Meyers. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2003. Rpt. of ''My Wicked, Wicked Ways''. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons, 1959. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eddington, Nora 1924 births 2001 deaths People from Greater Los Angeles Deaths from kidney failure Actresses from Chicago American film actresses Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery 20th-century American actresses