Probably easiest to sum up by his later years. Scandal and nymphets, 1942, two cases of statutory rape, acquitted both times ('In like Flynn' a phrase invented for him)..
The booze and looking years older than he should gives you an idea of how he lived.
In the 1930 / 40's the very definition of a swashbuckler. Although he fell off horses and broke brittle bones.
His acting limitations were often exposed without the flash of bright steel and coloured tights to misdirect the eye.