Most people who search for Patrice Wymore find her name attached to Errol Flynn’s. That connection is real and significant — but it tells only part of her story. She came to Hollywood with Broadway credits already behind her, built a screen career across two decades, and then built something else entirely: a life on a cattle ranch in Jamaica that lasted long after Flynn was gone.
This article covers who she was, how she got there, and what she left behind.
From Miltonvale to Broadway — Patrice Wymore’s Early Life
Patrice Wymore was born Patricia Wymore on December 17, 1926, in Miltonvale, Kansas. She grew up in Salina, Kansas, and began performing at a young age. By the time Hollywood noticed her, she already had stage experience that most young actresses her age didn’t.
Her Broadway work in the 1940s included the musicals Hold It! and All for Love. That background mattered. She was a trained performer — musical, disciplined — and not simply a product of studio casting calls. She came to film with real stage credentials.
That distinction is worth noting because it shapes how her career should be read. She wasn’t discovered by a talent scout at a lunch counter. She worked her way toward Hollywood through legitimate theatrical channels.
Her Film and Television Career in the 1950s and 1960s
Wymore made the move from stage to screen in the early 1950s. Her film credits were modest in number but included some recognizable titles. She appeared in Rocky Mountain (1950), King’s Rhapsody, and the 1960 ensemble film Ocean’s Eleven, which starred Frank Sinatra and a cast of well-known names from that era.
She also worked in television productions during this period. That said, she was not a headline star of the Hollywood studio era. Reliable biographical sources describe her screen career as comparatively limited, and it’s fair to present it that way. She had a real career, but she wasn’t a dominant leading actress of her generation.
By the late 1960s — around 1970 at the latest — she had largely stepped back from acting. Her later public profile came from other things entirely.
How Patrice Wymore Met and Married Errol Flynn
The film Rocky Mountain (1950) is where Wymore and Errol Flynn first crossed paths. Flynn starred in the western; Wymore appeared alongside him. Their relationship developed during production, and they married in October 1950.
The age difference was notable. Wymore was approximately 23 at the time. Flynn was approximately 41. Contemporary accounts acknowledged the gap openly, as was common with celebrity marriages of that era.
She was Flynn’s third and final wife. His two earlier marriages were to actress Lili Damita and to Nora Eddington. Wymore and Flynn remained married from October 1950 until his death in October 1959 — nine years in total.
It was not a simple or easy marriage, by most accounts. Flynn’s health declined significantly in his final years. But Wymore stayed, and she was his wife when he died.
Their Daughter and the Flynn Family Tree
Wymore and Flynn had one daughter together: Arnella Roma Flynn, born in 1953. Arnella later had a son, Luke Flynn, who went on to work as an actor — making Patrice Wymore his grandmother.
This is a point worth being clear about for readers who arrive at Wymore’s biography through Flynn family searches. Flynn’s other children — Sean Flynn, Deirdre Flynn, and Rory Flynn — came from his earlier marriages to Lili Damita and Nora Eddington. They were not Wymore’s children.
The direct line through Wymore runs: Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore → Arnella Roma Flynn → Luke Flynn.
Arnella Roma Flynn died before her mother. Obituaries and biographies reference her death with care, and so does this article. The details are not fully settled across sources, so it would be wrong to state specifics beyond what established reporting confirms.
Life in Jamaica After Flynn’s Death
Flynn had deep ties to Jamaica long before he died. He and Wymore had spent significant time there, where Flynn operated a large property that included cattle and coconut cultivation. The land was part of who he was in his later years.
After Flynn died in 1959, Wymore did not simply retreat from public life. She eventually made Jamaica her permanent home — a decision that defined the second half of her life.
She became involved in cattle ranching and ran a wicker-furniture business on the island. These weren’t side projects or hobbies. They were real occupations that she carried on for years. The Television Academy’s biography of her notes both the ranching and the furniture business as central to her later identity.
This matters because it tells a different story than the one most people expect. She wasn’t simply a widow keeping a famous man’s memory alive. She was running a business in a country she had chosen, living on her own terms.
Wymore gave occasional interviews over the years and remained known in Jamaica as a figure connected both to Flynn’s legacy and to the local community. She wasn’t invisible after 1959 — she had simply moved on to a different kind of life.
For readers interested in how celebrity lives shift after major losses, profiles like Wymore’s are genuinely useful case studies. BusinessBezel covers similar stories of public figures who built second careers outside the spotlight.
How She Is Remembered Today
Patrice Wymore died on March 22, 2014, at her home in Portland, Jamaica. She was 87 years old.
Obituaries in the Los Angeles Times, BBC News, and other publications described her as both an actress and Errol Flynn’s widow — but most of them also took time to mention the ranching and the business she had built in Jamaica. That combination tells you something about how she lived.
She is remembered today mainly through three lenses:
- As a Broadway-trained actress who made the transition to film and television in the 1950s.
- As the third and final wife of Errol Flynn, and the mother of his daughter Arnella.
- As a woman who built an independent life in Jamaica after Flynn’s death, working in ranching and business for decades.
None of those three things cancels the others. Her name is most often searched because of Flynn, but her life was bigger than that single association.
A Quick Timeline
- 1926: Born in Miltonvale, Kansas
- 1940s: Broadway stage work, including Hold It! and All for Love
- 1950: Appeared in Rocky Mountain and married Errol Flynn
- 1953: Daughter Arnella Roma Flynn was born
- 1959: Flynn died; Wymore remained in their Jamaica home
- 1960: Appeared in Ocean’s Eleven
- Late 1960s/c.1970: Largely stepped back from acting
- 2014: Died in Portland, Jamaica, aged 87
Conclusion
Patrice Wymore’s life doesn’t fit neatly into the category of “famous person’s spouse.” She had a career before Flynn, a marriage that lasted nearly a decade, a daughter, and then a long independent chapter in Jamaica that most people who search her name never quite reach.
She was a working actress, a rancher, a businesswoman, and a grandmother. Errol Flynn is the reason most people find her name — but the name belongs to someone with her own full story.
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