The most famous battle of the Wild West happened on October 26, 1881. It would not have been possible without Doc Holliday. A deputy, dentist, and outlaw, his life has inspired many shows, movies, and books. However, are the stories all true? While he did get into a number of shootings, he had not been alone. Together with the Earp brothers, he took down cowboys and did so while battling tuberculosis. Hold on to your horses and get ready to listen to the story of Doc Holliday!
His Childhood
His real name was actually John Henry Holliday. He was born in August 1851 to a father called Henry Burroughs Holliday, who previously served during the Mexican-American War. The older man also fought in the Civil War. In 1862, the family moved from Georgia to Florida because of the threat of Union troops. The family rose to prominence over there, his mother making sure he did not need to face the realities of war. Even though it was a fraught period in time, Holliday did not grow up violent.
His Childhood
A Great Student
Even though you might assume that he had been a rowdy student, this was not the truth. When he was little, he had a cleft palate and speech impediments. He got lessons from his mother and corrective surgery, so he was able to recover from them. Historical records show that he did well in school. He went to the Valdosta Institute, where he studied math, history, and rhetoric. He also learned French, Latin, and Ancient Greek. When he was 20 years old, he got his Doctor of Dental Surgery courtesy of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.
A Great Student
Tuberculosis
Alice Holliday passed away from tuberculosis in 1866. Her death had impacted his life since they were close. Three years after this, his dad married Rachel Martin, who was eight years his senior. John then left to work in Missouri and Georgia. When he was in his teens, his adoptive brother by the name of Francisco died of tuberculosis as well. It looked like John Holliday escaped the same fate by pursuing his dentistry practice. However, he was soon diagnosed with it too and was given months to live!
Tuberculosis
Dentistry And Gambling
After moving to Dallas, he became partners with Dr. John Seegar. He was a friend of his dad, and they would win a number of dental awards. Holliday lived much longer than the initial diagnosis but got terrible coughing spells at the unlikeliest of times. In the 1870s, his work began to decline. He then got into gambling as another way to earn money. He was so good at gambling that it soon became his main source of income. In May 1874, he and 12 other people got kicked out of Dallas for illegal gambling.
Dentistry And Gambling
Fighting Streak
There are a number of historical accounts of him fighting before leaving Dallas. It all changed in 1875. Holliday got into some fights over the course of his gambling career. In 1877, he got into an altercation with Henry Kahn, a fellow gambler. They were both arrested but Kahn later beat Holliday again. The Dallas Weekly Herald incorrectly said that Holliday died. With the help of George Holliday, his cousin, John moved to Fort Griffin, Texas. While there, he entered the only known relationship of his life with “Big Nose Kate” Horony.
Fighting Streak
Doc Holliday
Even though he had violent tendencies, his peers called him a calm gentleman. Holliday was once asked if his conscience troubled him. He only said, “I coughed that up with my lungs years ago.” However, he had also been described as possessing a “mean disposition” and “ungovernable temper.” Holliday said that he had lived through 17 arrests, 5 ambushes, and 4 hanging attempts. A lot of the stories spread through rumors and self-promotion. This proved useful in cementing his Wild West Cowboy legacy!
Doc Holliday
First Meeting
It was around that time that he met Wyatt Earp, a rogue lawman. There is a lot of speculation around their meeting, but everyone agrees that they went on to become the most feared duo of the Wild West. Earp was working as a deputy U.S. marshal at the time. The story goes that he was going after Dave “Dirty” Rudabaugh at the time and asked Holliday after the outlaw’s whereabouts. Holliday had previously gambled with Rudabaugh and told Earp that he fled to Kansas. Earp went in that direction but wound up meeting each other again.
First Meeting
Saving His Life
During the summer, two or five cowboys rode into the Dodge City-based Long Branch Saloon. Holliday had been looking for a dental job in Dodge and gambling in the back at the time the cowboys were vandalizing the place and harassing customers. Earp entered upon hearing the commotion only to have the cowboys point their weapons at him. However, Holliday pointed his own pistol at the leader of the men and forced them to disarm. There are no news reports about the incident, but it is believed that Holliday saved Earp’s life.
Saving His Life
Going After Silver
It was in October 1879 that Earp got to Las Vegas to meet up with Holliday. He informed Doc that he was on his way to Tombstone, Arizona for the silver boom. Holliday tried to chase after the gold rushes in Wyoming and Dakota to no avail. At any rate, he later joined Earp a year later. In the new Western territories, there were not lots of government forces to take on crime. This was how Earp and his brother ended up taking over that role. County sheriff Johnny Behan initially turned a blind eye to their efforts. However, Behan started to see them as criminals when Holliday entered the scene.
Going After Silver
Becoming Doc
Holliday was busy gambling, fighting, and practicing dentistry when he was in Fort Griffin, Texas. He earned a reputation for giving customers their money back for unsatisfactory business. It was why he was nicknamed “Doc.” In 1878, he permanently retired as a dentist. Several shootings later, he became famous for being good with his weapon. However, he still had tuberculosis. For a year, he lived in Las Vegas for the reported healing properties of the hot springs there. He later left for Dodge City thanks to the anti-gambling laws but came back to build saloons in Vegas. It was where he and Earp reunited.
Becoming Doc
Accused Of Stagecoach Robbing
Three cowboys ambushed a stagecoach on the way to Tombstone in March 1881. Rumors said that an outlaw called Doc Holliday led this robbery. At one point, Horony snitched on him that it was him who was responsible for this. Holliday got arrested and then convicted of assault. Luckily, the Earps got witnesses to prove his innocence. Horony later said that Sheriff Behan made her confess and sign a document she could not understand. It led to more tension among Earp, Holliday, and Earp.
Accused Of Stagecoach Robbing
Ike Clanton
Holliday had been enjoying drinks at the Alhambra Saloon on October 25, 1881. He then got into an argument with another outlaw, Ike Clanton. He challenged the latter to a duel and discovered that Clanton had no weapons on him. Holliday, however, taunted him further by saying he did away with Clanton’s dad. The following morning, Clanton armed himself and looked for Holliday. He woke up the dentist and Mary Horony, his common-law wife, with threats. Holliday allegedly said, “If God will let me live to get my clothes on, he will see me.”
Ike Clanton
A Battle
Before Holliday entered the scene, the Earps disarmed Clanton and brought him to court. Clanton might have been behind bars but got other cowboys to back him up. It included his sibling Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury. Holliday faced them with the Earp brothers: Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil. Now, there are debates about what came after. However, it is known that the field lit up with a blaze of shots. Everything fell silent half a minute after that. The men fired 30 bullets in the short but brutal standoff.
A Battle
O.K. Corral
Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers died there and then. Meanwhile, Ike Clanton escaped. Reports said that Holliday might have shot them all dead. He, Virgil, and Morgan were wounded but emerged as the winners. The shootout came to be known as the fight of the O.K. Corral as it happened several doors away from the Corral. It was one of the most famous battles of the time and has been depicted in TV shows and movies. However, this was far from the end for Holliday as well as the Earp brothers.
O.K. Corral
A Deputy
Virgil Earp ended up crippled after O.K. Corral. Meanwhile, Morgan got ambushed and died in March 1882. Virgil survived a number of ambushes as well, but Wyatt and his deputies made sure to protect him. They were not able to look for justice at the courts, which was why he deputized Holliday. They vowed to get revenge for Morgan’s death. The federal posse rode out to look for Frank Stilwell, who they believed was responsible. They found the cowboy on a train. Virgil ended up killing him.
A Deputy
The Cowboy Life
After they killed Frank Stilwell, there was a warrant out for the arrest of the federal posse. However, they were not yet done. Days after that ambush, Holliday and Wyatt got to Iron Springs. They snuck up on 8 cowboys, drew their weapons, and started to fire. Holliday and the gang took out three of them. The sole casualty in the posse would be their wounded horse. They now had a warrant for them, which was the reason they opted to skip Arizona and head on to Colorado.
The Cowboy Life
Parting Ways
The group crossed the New Mexico Territory to escape the warrant. In Albuquerque, Wyatt and Holliday had a feud. Earp decided to remain in New Mexico, and Holliday left for Colorado. In 1882, Holliday went to Glenwood Springs in the hopes that the waters there could help cure his tuberculosis. However, he was arrested when he got to Denver. He went to jail on account of the murder of Frank Stilwell.
Parting Ways
Friends Forever
It was a good thing that he had not cut ties with Wyatt entirely. Upon hearing about the news, Wyatt was worried that his pal would not be granted a fair trial. He asked Bat Masterson, his friend and the Colorado Chief of Police, to make bunco charges against Doc Holliday. Holliday got to meet Masterson two weeks after he was arrested. They went to Pueblo, Colorado, and Holliday got out on bond. Earp and Holliday were reunited in Gunnison, Colorado in June 1882. It was one of their last few meetings.
Friends Forever
Johnny Ringo
Holliday might have taken another life before his death. In July 1882, his enemy Johnny Ringo was discovered dead. Hanging from a tree, it was reported as a suicide. However, Earp’s third wife said that Earp and Holliday went to Arizona to kill Ringo. There is no evidence that says they were responsible for it. There was still a warrant out for Holliday in Arizona, so it was unlikely that he went there.
Johnny Ringo
Final Days
Holliday would spend his last days in Colorado. At the time, his health was failing rapidly. When Earp last saw Holliday in 1886, he saw that his friend had weak legs and a terrible cough. Holliday was out of money and kept going to saloon fights at the time. The sulfuric fumes of Glenwood Springs made his condition worse. Horony was with him during his last days. On his deathbed, Doc Holliday looked at his bare feet and remarked, “This is funny.” Why? Well, he always thought he would die with his boots on.
Final Days
His Legacy
He died in November 1887. After his death, his status only grew. “Few men have been better known to a certain class of sporting people, and few men of his character had more friends or stronger champions,” was what his obituary in the Denver Republican said. Wyatt said, “I found him a loyal friend and good company.” Stories about Doc Holliday immortalized him as did movies, music, shows, and books about him. He has since become one of the most recognizable cowboys ever. He was so iconic that his life was memorialized in a famous Western film called Tombstone. How was he portrayed?
His Legacy
Star-Studded
The Western film genre had been on the decline in 1993. However, the production team managed to get A-listers on board. The film has a number of iconic stars such as Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer. Aside from the lead actors, the cast also included the likes of Robert Mitchum, Dana Delany, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, Michael Biehn, and Powers Boothe. Talk about a power team for a movie people thought would fail!
Star-Studded
The Directors
The movie was directed by George P. Cosmatos. However, he was not originally slated to do so. The movie was initially set to be helmed by Kevin Jarre, the writer of the film. However, he got replaced early on. In the end, everything worked out well. We are sure things would not have been the same if Cosmatos was not the one to lead everything!
The Directors
A Success
Even though there were concerns about how Tombstone would have done at the box office, it was a success. People thought that Western films were already on their way out, but the movie proved everyone wrong. Released on Christmas Eve of 1993, it grossed $56,505,065 domestically. Both critics and viewers adored the film. It went on to be a Western classic and even became the 14th highest-grossing Western flick since 1979.
A Success
Michael Biehn
A major plot point of the movie would be the moment that Doc Holliday, played by Val Kilmer, shot Johnny Ringo, played by Michael Biehn. Fans got upset about it, but here was what Biehn had to say about it: “I wanted him to shoot me! Well, I always thought Johnny Ringo had a little bit of a ‘[death] by police’ mentality. There’s a part in that movie, which I think is one of my greatest moments on film, and I don’t sit around and look for it, but whenever I see it, I always think, ‘Yeah, that’s what I was trying to do, and that’s what I got.”
Michael Biehn
That Incredible Scene
There was a moment when Doc Holliday shot Johnny Ringo. It was a favorite among fans. In an interview, Sam Elliott explained, “That thing was just incredible. They’re both so good, and you just know this moment is coming all the way through the film. You’re salivating by the time it does come.” Even though this scene had viewers reeling, it sure brought the entire film together.
That Incredible Scene
Bob Dylan
Val Kilmer said that Bob Dylan loved the film! “One of my favorites was Bob Dylan who was obsessed with Tombstone,” the actor narrated when he explained what it was like to meet the music legend, “So he came over to my hotel. I was like, ‘Where are you? I’ll come over.’ And he said, ‘No, I’ll be right there.’ So we sat and eventually he said ‘Ain’t you gonna say anything about that movie?’ I was so star struck myself. He wasn’t star-struck, but he was just really, really into that movie. It was very flattering.”
Bob Dylan
Adrenaline Rush
Biehn said that his character Johnny Ringo was fond of “living on the edge” and lifethreatening situations lent him “that adrenaline rush.” In the Old West, he said that Johnny would have gotten bored just drinking and traveling. “He was just a drunk guy, as you can imagine living back then in the old west. You think about all the saloons and the all the warm beers, no air conditioning,” Biehn said, “And it’s Tombstone, and if you’ve ever been down there, it’s hot all the time, so it would be pretty miserable if you ask me.”
Adrenaline Rush
His Favorite Character
Biehn said that he loved playing Johnny Ringo. He felt a connection to the character and liked portraying such a challenging role. He said, “But Johnny Ringo’s probably, along with Kyle Reese, my two favorite characters.” He also played Kyle Reese of the Terminator films. If you ask us, this character is just like a futuristic Johnny Ringo. We can definitely see what Biehn saw in those two characters.
His Favorite Character
Bubble Gum
Biehn had a great time working on Tombstone and knows that it helped reestablish the Western genre. However, he also said it “ain’t history.” He made a comparison to “the latest pop hit.” Furthermore, he said, “The reason Tombstone was such a good movie is because it had a great script by Kevin Jarre.” He added, “It had great characters. And it had great actors to play them. Kurt was great. I don’t think Val has been better in any other movie. It’s his greatest performance. You have Sam Elliott, you have Bill Paxton, you have Powers Boothe, you have Thomas Haden Church. You’ve got Jason Priestley and Billy Zane. Billy Bob Thornton and Frank Stallone. Everywhere you look, there is a new face that pops up. They are a celebrity, but they fit into this world. I think our film was the bubble gum version.”
Bubble Gum
Fun
Regardless, he admitted that it was a great deal of fun. “We had a lot of problems on our movie with Kevin [Jarre] getting fired,” Biehn said. “It was a great script. And there were some great performances in it. By the time it got cut together, and I saw it, I thought it was really good. In terms of being fun… Our movie, for some reason, was a lot of fun. It kept people laughing. The quotes were something that a lot of people enjoyed. We had the gun twirling. The Latin. The characters were fun.”
Fun
Mustaches
If you watch the movie, you might notice that the male characters all had a mustache. Most of the actors had to grow out their mustaches for the project! Biehn explained, “Everyone just grew a mustache. When it comes down to it, this goes back to Kevin Jarre…He was very specific about how he wanted the mustaches. He wanted them to curl up on the end. Which means, if you grow a mustache, and it grows long enough, you have to use wax on the end of it.” He added, “Everyone was pretty proud that they grew their own mustache. There was one guy, Jon Tenney. He didn’t get to grow his own mustache because he had a job right before that. They had to put a fake mustache on him. I think he always felt a little bit like the small dog of the group. Because it wasn’t his real mustache.”
Mustaches
Kevin Jarre
If you thought that being both the writer and director meant you can do everything you want, you should know that Kevin Jarre got fired for this. “It was sad for me,” Biehn explained. “I liked Kevin a lot. He was the one that wrote the script. He really wanted that script to be the way he wanted it to be. He wanted to cast it the way he wanted to cast it. He wanted the saddles to look the way he wanted them to look. He wanted the spurs to be a certain way. He wanted the mustaches to be a certain way. He wanted the dialogue to be a certain way.”
Kevin Jarre
Departure
He was not the only cast member who felt this way about Kevin Jarre. “The biggest challenge for everybody in this picture and particularly Kurt [Russell] was that they got rid of Kevin Jarre,” Sam Elliott said. “The sad part of it was this guy was a brilliant writer, and he knew the elements. He brought all those elements together…It was heartbreaking.” Luckily, they pulled it off. Elliott added, “All of us actors had a real feeling for Kevin. “Kurt was the one who said, ‘We gotta pull this thing off, do this for him.’”
Departure
Modern Version
Jarred wanted to shoot it like a ‘40s Western flick, but the production team did not agree. “He wanted everything in this long master shot. That’s the way they used to shoot in the 40s, and that’s the way he wanted to shoot his movie,” Biehn said. “[The production crew] were looking at dailies thinking, ‘This is not a modern retelling of an old story. This looks like it’s an old Western that is being shot back in the ’40s.’ That’s what Kevin wanted. That’s what he fought for. And that’s what he eventually got fired for.”
Modern Version
Handpicked
Jarre later got fired from the film, but he managed to finish finalizing the cast members. Sam Elliott said, “I remember going and having lunch with him at a place on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, which I don’t think is even there anymore. And Kevin said he was having all of his meetings there, like he was holding court… I think Kevin’s the one who really controlled this thing creatively before it got off the ground.”
Handpicked
Brilliant Script
The stars got attached to the project thanks to the script. “The dialogue was there,” Sam Elliott said. “Kevin Jarre wrote a brilliant script. I think across the board, every character there was well drawn. And he brought actors you normally wouldn’t associate with Westerns, like Val Kilmer. I think it’s the best thing that Val’s ever done.” Kilmer himself said he was sold after reading, “I’m your huckleberry.” He narrated the time he asked Jarre where this line came from: “He didn’t have a specific answer. But I loved it. It just seemed to be the odd, perfect statement for the scene—’You’ve met your match.’”
Handpicked
George Cosmatos
The cast bonded with Jarre who handpicked every person for the roles they got. However, they were not that enthusiastic about the person who replaced him. “He was a whole other animal,” Sam Elliott said about George Cosmatos. “I guess he was Italian. Treated everybody not too good. We had our moment right at the beginning… I always go to the set and stand around when I’m not working just to watch—I’d rather do that than sit around a hotel—and I remember George coming up to me with his dark glasses, looking up at me from the top of his glasses, sticking his nose right in my face. And he said, ‘Am I gonna have trouble with you?’”
George Cosmatos
It Came Together
Even though they did not get off on the right foot, things soon fell into place. Sam Elliott might have gotten challenged by the director, but the actor did not back down. Elliott only looked him in the eye. He narrated, “Just looked him right back in the eye and said, ‘I don’t know, am I gonna have trouble with you?’ And he just laughed and said, ‘Ah, we’re gonna get along fine.’ So we got along good.”
It Came Together
About Friendship
Val Kilmer has talked about the bond between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. He was struck by the strength of their friendship. “Their bond and strange empathy with each other is really attractive,” the actor explained. “It’s very clear, yet it’s also mysterious. [There’s] this lawman [Wyatt Earp], who finally gets a chance to make some money and relax and have fun like every other American, then he gets pulled back into doing the right thing. I mean, who doesn’t want to just run away and live on an island somewhere? But it’s a very American tradition—you gotta do the right thing…And his best friend [Doc Holliday] is kinda crazy… It’s quite possible he’s a psychopath. But he’s so funny.”
About Friendship