His reputation as a scoundrel seemed secure. In 1914, while living in Los Angeles, Earp took a step toward repairing his image by visiting Paramount Studios—the first of what would be many visits to Hollywood. He charmed Raoul Walsh and Charlie Chaplin, regaling them with largely invented tales of his past.
It was the first movie to depict Wyatt Earp and the only movie that included his character before he died in 1929. Hart played "Wild Bill" and Bert Lindley played Earp. The role of Earp's character in the movie was very small.
Wyatt Earp spent his last years in West Adams, Los Angeles, living with his common-law wife Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, in a bungalow at 4004 West 17th Street, between Arlington and Crenshaw and Venice and Washington Blvd.
John Ford, who in his youth had known the real Wyatt Earp, claimed the way the OK Corral gunfight was staged in this film was the way it was explained to him by Earp himself, with a few exceptions. Ford met Earp through Harry Carey.
Bottom line: Earp and Wayne never met. Anything Wayne knew about the real Earp came to him secondhand from Ford during their 25-year working relationship. Their encounter is only a charming Hollywood fable. Nonetheless, Earp and Wayne did share several qualities.
John Henry Holliday (August 14, 1851 – November 8, 1887), better known as Doc Holliday, was a dentist and later a gambler, gunfighter, and a close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp.
Wyatt spent the following years moving through several towns in Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico, supporting himself through law enforcement, gambling, and various other means. In December 1879, Wyatt settled in Tombstone, Arizona. His brothers Virgil, Morgan, and James soon joined him there.
After his death, Josephine had Earp's body cremated secretly and his remains buried at her family plot at the Hills of Eternity Memorial Park. The first marble headstone was stolen. The recovered headstone is now on display in the Colma Historical museum. Earp's grave is the most visited place in Colma, California.
Earp, who had no children, was the last surviving participant of the OK Corral gunfight. In his later years, he'd consulted on Hollywood westerns and gotten to know various actors and directors. His funeral was attended by such celebrities as Western film star Tom Mix, who served as a pallbearer.
He became the archetypical tough-guy cowboy, but he wasn't a cowboy, far from it. So who taught John Wayne to be John Wayne? It was a guy from eastern Washington who most people have forgotten, if they ever heard of him, a guy who changed how we see the West and changed Hollywood itself. He was Yakima Canutt.
He was the son of a major silent screen star, Harry Carey (1878-1947), who had been a real cowboy before taking up a career in films in 1910, later becoming a Ford regular. He is reputed to have introduced Ford to Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), whose reminiscences inspired Ford's masterpiece, My Darling Clementine (1946).
Wyatt Earp Quote: Fast is fine, but accuracy is final. In a gun fight. You need to take your time in a hurry. Wyatt Earp Quote: Fast is fine, but accuracy is final.
He was tough, pragmatic, and independent, reflecting his environment and times. As a Kansas peace officer, Earp was respected more than feared, making him an effective lawman.
After the Gunfight: Arrested and tried for the murder of the Cowboys, the Earps and Doc Holliday were acquitted in November 1881 by Judge Spicer. With tensions running high, Virgil was shot and crippled in December and five months later, in May 1882, Morgan was assassinated.
With his more violent years behind him, Earp died peacefully at the age of 81 with his wife Josie Marcus at his side. Josie was so grief stricken that it is said she could not even attend the funeral.
Wyatt Earp can be considered a documentary because it tries to be historically truthful, while My Darling Clementine's place is in the realm of Hollywood magic.
Since the Earps were pursuing the killers involved in the stagecoach robbery and there are many accounts that the Clanton “gang” was involved in various crimes, it is not inaccurate to call the Earps the “"good guys.”
In the film Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, during the closing credits reference is made to the fact that "Tom Mix wept" at Wyatt Earp's funeral. A passing reference is made about Mix in Season 3, Episode 2 of Downton Abbey.
— On Nov. 8, 1887, John Henry “Doc” Holliday died of tuberculosis in a rented room at the Hotel Glenwood in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The fact is, despite his fame and notoriety, the gambler, gunfighter, dentist and friend of Wyatt Earp left this earth destitute.
Doc Holliday spent much of his life out West, there is no evidence that he and Billy the Kid crossed paths. An alleged photo that has been circulating of Doc, Wyatt, Billy, and Jesse James has no solid provenance and its validity has not been verified.
