Actors and Aliens

In 2013, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the release of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), the National Archives at Riverside — which maintains thousands of federal records from Southern California, Arizona, and Clark County, Nevada — published the naturalization records of the film’s two leads, Errol Flynn (Robin) and Olivia de Havilland (Maid Marian).

We reproduce them here as a reminder that Golden Age Hollywood, so adept at exporting American culture around the globe, was an immigrant community, from the Eastern European moguls who founded the studios, to the German emigre directors of the 1930s and 1940s, to numerous other continental types who found work in front of and behind the camera.

Note, by the way, Flynn’s stated profession of “actor-author.” He wrote three books: Beam Ends (1937; an autobiographical account of his sailing exploits), Showdown (1946; an adventure novel), and My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1959; considered by many to be the classic Hollywood autobiography). And, of course, there were his journalistic stints, including his coverage of the revolution in Cuba.

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