Though many actors have brought his story to the screen over the years ranging from Hugh O'Brian to James Garner, two of the best portrayals were by Costner and Russell. Though both actors played Earp, the two films are pretty different off the bat. Costner's, aptly titled Wyatt Earp, is really just that.
They were both pretty accurate. “Tombstone” just concentrated on the events leading to the gunfight at the OK Corral and it's aftermath. The Costner film went into more of his entire life. A central figure in the narrative of how the west was won, Wyatt Earp and his story became an American legend.
His professional acting career began on stage, and he still participates in theater; he played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. His film debut was in the 1984 spoof.
The Best Portrayals Of Wyatt Earp On Screen Ranked
Who cried at Wyatt Earp's funeral?
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.
The shootout, thought to have lasted less than a minute, left three people dead: Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton. Afterward, the Earps and Holliday were arrested for murder.
Summary. Kurt Russell's performance as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone is one of his most defining roles, but it almost starred Richard Gere instead. Russell fell in love with the story and convinced Disney to distribute the film. Kevin Costner, who was originally attached to the film, left to make a rival biopic of Wyatt Earp ...
Throughout his lifetime, Holliday was known by many of his peers as a tempered, calm, Southern gentleman. In an 1896 article, Wyatt Earp said: "I found him a loyal friend and good company.
Who was originally supposed to play Doc Holliday in Tombstone?
Tombstone Nearly Cast Willem Dafoe As Doc Holliday
Before Kilmer was cast in Tombstone, the producers' first choice for the role of Doc Holliday was Willem Dafoe (via MovieWeb). The studio vetoed Dafoe's casting because they were wary of the controversy surrounding Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ.
Yes John Wayne did know Wyatt Earp. John Wayne was gored as an extra and a prop boy. Wayne created his famous walk and talk in Westerns after Earp. It is said that John Wayne was a pallbearer at Wyatt Earps funeral.
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.
Long after his death, he has many devoted detractors and admirers. Earp's modern-day reputation is that of the Old West's "toughest and deadliest gunman of his day".
The official verdict was suicide, although Wyatt Earp later claimed to have done the deed. Some think some other shady character may have put an end to Ringo—he had plenty of enemies—while others, including the scriptwriters for Tombstone, imagine Doc was the killer.
John Peters Ringo (May 3, 1850 – July 13, 1882), known as Johnny Ringo, was an American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier boomtown Tombstone, Arizona Territory. He took part in the Mason County War in Texas during which he committed his first murder.
All the mustaches in the movie were real except Jon Tenney's (Sheriff Behan) who had to be clean shaven for his prior project, and was thus the only fake mustache in the movie.
"This is funny" were supposedly Doc Holliday's real last words, expressing a wry irony about dying barefoot and overheard by a nurse. "This is funny" are the last words of Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday in Tombstone, and there's a good reason he finds things so amusing.
A decade later, director John Sturges made a more historically accurate version named Hour of the Gun, starring James Garner as Wyatt Earp, Jason Robards as Doc Holliday and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton. This film begins with a more accurate version of the O.K. Corral gun battle, then covers its aftermath.
Doc Holliday—gunslinger, gambler, and occasional dentist—dies from tuberculosis. Though he was perhaps most famous for his participation in the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, John Henry “Doc” Holliday earned his bad reputation well before that famous feud.
Earp leased four saloons and gambling halls in San Diego, the most famous was his Oyster Bar located in the Louis Bank of Commerce on Fifth Avenue. He was listed as a capitalist (gambler) in the San Diego City Directory in 1887 and among his other winnings, he won a race horse.
Wyatt's good friend “Doc” Holliday called Wyatt the “Jewish Boy.” Wyatt's Hollywood friends conducted a funeral for him at the Congregational Church in Los Angeles, California, but Sadie did not attend and later gave him a Jewish funeral.
Blaylock suffered from severe headaches and while in Tombstone, Arizona she became addicted to laudanum, a then-common opiate and pain killer. It is not known exactly when Earp and Blaylock ended their relationship.
