PATRICE Wymore Flynn, former American actress and widow of swashbuckling movie star Errol Flynn, is dead.

Wymore Flynn, who adopted the rustic parish of Portland as her home since the 1950s, died on her 2,000-acre property in Castle, Portland, on Saturday. She was 87 and had been ailing for some time.

Daryl Vaz, member of parliament for Western Portland, confirmed the actress’s death.

“She died a little after 4:00 pm on Saturday,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The MP remembers the actress-cum-farmer as a woman who was “vibrant, energetic and passionate” about the parish she called home.

“She adopted Portland as her home and never stopped promoting it… hence it became the playground for the rich and famous,” he said.

Born in Miltonvale, Kansas, Patrice Wymore met Flynn on the set of the 1950 movie, Rocky Mountain.

In a 2009 interview with the Jamaica Observer, Wymore Flynn said she and her husband settled in rustic Portland to escape Hollywood’s glare.

“People here wouldn’t chase you for autographs as they do in the United States, they would only point and whisper to themselves,” she said.

The couple’s only child, Arnella, died in 1998.

According to local folklore, the Tasmania-born Errol Flynn discovered Port Antonio by chance after being washed ashore in his yacht, Zaca, in 1946.

Wymore Flynn, Flynn’s third wife, had a bright future as an actress. In 1947, she won the Theatre World Award for promising actress; she had a part in the 1960 version of Ocean’s Eleven alongside the ‘Rat Pack’, which included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Peter Lawford and in Tea for Two (1950) opposite Doris Day and Gordon MacRae.

The Hollywood elite, including actors Bette Davis, David Niven and Alexis Smith, as well as Robin Moore, author of the French Connection, made the Flynn’s guest list at their Portland home.

Last year, the Flynn family was honoured at the Portland Jerk Festival for their contribution to tourism. Luke Flynn, the Flynn’s grandson, collected the award from the Jamaica Tourist Board.