Beverly Elaine (Aadland) Fisher (1942 - 2010)

Born 16 Sep 1942 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Ancestors

Died 5 Jan 2010 at age 67 in Lancaster, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Beverly (Aadland) Fisher is Notable.

Biography

Beverly was born 16 Sept 1942, Los Angeles, California, daughter of Herbert Aadland and Florence Simpson. She entered show business as a child, appearing in the film Death of a Salesman (1951). She appeared in films including South Pacific.

Beverly Aadland was a 15-year old dancer on the Warner Bros. lot when she met Errol Flynn, who invited her home with him to "read for a part." She became Flynn's last girl friend, appearing with him in his final film, Cuban Rebel Girls (1959). She was 17 at the time that she was with actor with Flynn when he died of a heart attack on October 14, 1959, in Vancouver, British Columbia at the age of 50.

In 1961, Aadland's mother, Florence Aadland, alleged in the book The Big Love that actor Flynn had a sexual relationship with her daughter starting at age 15, yet there is also speculation he was led to believe she was 18. The book would be turned into a one-woman Broadway show starring Tracey Ullman as Florence. The memoir was reissued in 2018 by Spurl Editions. Beverly Aadland gave an account of her relationship with Flynn in People in 1988, confirming that she had had a sexual relationship with Flynn in her teens. Her relationship with Flynn was the subject of the 2013 movie The Last of Robin Hood, in which Aadland was played by Dakota Fanning.

After shooting another boyfriend, William Stanciu, in 1960 - self-defense, she claimed he died in her apartment after being shot in a struggle between the two. That event led to her being a ward of the court for the following year.

Two short marriages later, Maurice Jose de Leon, (m. 1961; div. 1964)​ and Joseph E. McDonald, (m. 1967; div. 1969), and a brief career as a singer and dancer, Aadland was a cocktail waitress when she met and married her final husband, tire salesman Ronald Fisher, in 1969. The couple had a daughter:

1. Aadlanda Joy Fisher 1980-living

Beverly Aadland Fisher died on January 5, 2010, at the Lancaster Community Hospital from complications of diabetes and congestive heart failure. She was 67 years old. Cremated, Ashes scattered.

From the Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2010:

Beverly E. Fisher, who became famous at 17 as Beverly Aadland, the final girlfriend of 50-year-old swashbuckling Hollywood actor Errol Flynn, has died. She was 67.

Fisher died Tuesday at Lancaster Community Hospital from complications of diabetes and congestive heart failure, said Ronald Fisher, her husband of 40 years.

Beverly Fisher had a torrid two-year affair with Flynn that began when she was 15. The charming, womanizing actor had gained fame in the 1930s but his name had been tarnished in the 1940s, when he was accused of statutory rape and acquitted. He is also said to have abused alcohol and morphine, making it difficult for him to remember lines.

Fisher caught Flynn’s eye working as a dancer at the Warner Bros. lot in 1957, and he invited her to dinner at a Hollywood estate to read for a part in a play, according to an interview published in People magazine in 1988.

“I read for the part but the whole thing was a ruse -- somebody else already had the part,” she said. After dinner and sake, Flynn invited her onto a bearskin rug.

“With Errol I didn’t know what was happening at first -- I just thought he was just trying to kiss me. He knew so many women who would say yes that when I was saying no, no, no, he thought I meant yes,” Fisher said. Flynn, who was still married to, but separated from his third wife, kept calling Fisher afterward to apologize. A few days later she agreed to go out with him again.

They traveled to Africa, Europe and Jamaica, where he had a ranch. Her mother did not object to the relationship, according to the interview.

Fisher, who was born Sept. 16, 1942, gained notoriety after Flynn suddenly died of a heart attack in 1959: She was with him when he collapsed in Vancouver.

In 1960, Fisher’s boyfriend entered her home and was dead the next morning, fatally shot by his own gun on his 21st birthday.

She told police he’d attacked her and they’d grappled for control of the weapon, according to a Times article.

A month later, the 17-year-old was made a ward of the court and put in the care of a church chaplain’s wife.

Fisher soon began a singing and dancing career on the East Coast and returned to California several years later. She married and divorced twice. After her second marriage, she ended her performing career and was a cocktail waitress when she met Ronald Fisher, who sold auto parts and tires. They initially settled in Glendale and moved to Palmdale in the early 1970s.

“I converted her into a housewife, which she always wanted to do anyway,” he said.

An account of her relationship with Flynn was published in the book “The Big Love,” which was written with her mother’s help. It was later made into a play.

Ronald Fisher said his wife never stopped loving Flynn and told him once that “if he was still around, I’d be with him.”

He joked back to her, “Well, it’d be crowded, wouldn’t it?”

In addition to her husband, Fisher is survived by their 30-year-old daughter, Aadlanda Joy Fisher, and a granddaughter. Services will be private.

Sources

• "California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGL1-CHS : 27 November 2014), Beverly Elaine Aadland, 16 Sep 1942; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
• "Nevada Marriage Index, 1956-2005", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVJ2-XXW : 21 July 2021), Maurice Jose Deleon and Beverly Elaine Aadland
• "California Divorce Index, 1966-1984," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPR4-Z3Y : 15 May 2014), Beverly E Aadland and Joseph E Mcdonald, Jan 1969; from "California Divorce Index, 1966-1984," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2007); citing Los Angeles City, California, Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento.
• "Beverly E. Fisher dies at 67; Errol Flynn's final girlfriend". Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2010 https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-beverly-aadland10-2010jan10-story.html
• Aadland, Florence (1986). Thomey, Tedd (ed.). The Big Love (reprint ed.). Grand Central Pub. p. 206. in a local library.
• "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q5Q9-X16F : 18 July 2020), Beverly Aadland in entry for Errol Flynn, 1959.
• "California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VLXR-4V3 : 27 November 2014), Aadland in entry for Aadlanda Joy Fisher, 22 Jan 1980; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGT2-JZ6 : 12 January 2021), Beve Fisher, 06 Jan 2010; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKJ-8KW4 : 11 January 2022), Beverly Elaine Aadland Fisher, ; Burial, , ; citing record ID 46526870, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46526870/beverly-elaine-fisher : accessed 10 May 2022), memorial page for Beverly Elaine Aadland Fisher (16 Sep 1942–5 Jan 2010), Find a Grave Memorial ID 46526870, ; Maintained by John Donne (contributor 47286829) Cremated, Ashes scattered.

See also:

• Wikipedia: Beverly Aadland
• Wikidata: Item Q455313, en:Wikipedia