Shiver Me Timbers – It’s a Silver Screen Swashbuckler
Thanks to Pirates of the Caribbean, starring dashing Johnny Depp, love interest Keira Knightly and handsome Orlando Bloom, pirate movies are all the rage again.
James MacGregor looks back on Hollywood's Pirate History
The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) the first in the series, was a massive box-office success, repeated again with computer games and pirate dolls. The second, Dead Man's Chest, has just premiered and will battle it out with the new Superman movie for the biggest summer blockbuster release of 2006.
A third in the Pirates of the Caribbean series has already been filmed on the island of St Vincent. That one is due for release next year.
Pirates have a long cinema history, with even silent classics like The Black Pirate and Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate character Long John Silver has been played by three different actors.
Pirates At The Movies
The Black Pirate (1926) - Made Douglas Fairbanks Senior a legendary swashbuckler
The Beloved Rogue (1927) - John Barrymore and Conrad Veidt spliced the mainbrace.
Errol Flynn took to sea in the 1930's in Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, both coming from the pen of Rafael Sabatini who wrote action-packed romances in the early 1900's
Edinburgh writer Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island gave us the unforgettable Long John Silver, with his wooden leg and his parrot Captain Flint sitting on his shoulder squawking "Pieces of Eight."
Long JohnSilver has been played on screen by Wallace Beery in the 1930's, Robert Newton's classic portrayal came in 1950 and most recent Long John was Charlton Heston.
Long John Silver is said to be based on Blackbeard, a pirate originally from Bristol,
whose real name was Edward Teach, born in 1680. He met his end in 1718 after robbing ships in the Caribbean. The Governor of Virginia hired HMS Pearl to finally rid the Caribbean of Blackbeard.
Blackbeard was defiant to the last even as the crew of HMS Pearl boarded his ship, Adventure. Blackbeard was shot 20 times, slashed with cutlasses and stabbed, but was finally dispatched by a Highlander who beheaded the notorious pirate.