Since the early 1900s, Hollywood has brought many different versions of Wyatt Earp's life to film.
And while not all of these portrayals are performances for the ages, we’re always happy to
see an Earp onscreen. Here are the best portrayals of Wyatt Earp onscreen, ranked from worst to best.
In 2017, Alex Cox, writer and director of cult classics such as Sid and Nancy and Repo Man,
released Tombstone Rashomon, a bizarre sci-fi Western about a group of filmmakers
who somehow travel back in time and end up at the O.K. Corral after the infamous shootout.
Cox borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's 1950 classic Rashomon, in that the survivors
of the gunfight each tell a different version of what happened to the film crew.
Cox attempted to pay for his vision through crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo.
“My name is Wyatt Earp. My present profession is saloon keeper.”
When HuffPost asked about his inspiration for the movie, Cox said:
"Oh, I don't really know. I've been thinking about doing the O.K. Corral story for a very long time.
I guess it came as a result of seeing Rashomon. Such a good film and such a
good way of approaching a story of which there's more than one version. It just seems appropriate.
But then you get into a situation where you're trying to raise money for a film called Tombstone
Rashomon from the general public — how many people know what Rashomon is? One in a thousand, maybe?"
The film received tepid reviews from the few critics who knew of its existence.
Adam Newberry played Wyatt Earp, a performance that took a backseat to the zaniness of the plot
and ends up as the worst (and weirdest) portrayal onscreen of the iconic lawman.
This is Val Kilmer's second appearance in a Wyatt Earp film, and this time, he's playing
the Old West legend himself. The direct-to-video Wyatt Earp's Revenge goes back and forth between
Wyatt as an older man, played by Kilmer, and as a younger man, played by Shawn Roberts.
While in San Francisco, Wyatt tells a reporter a very vivid and very historically inaccurate
tale about how he and his posse of men went after Spike Kenedy, the killer of his lover, Dora Hand.
Some critics referred to Kilmer's performance of an aging Wyatt as "tired" — this was
surprisingly one of the better reviews of the movie. And Roberts' younger version of
Wyatt is played with one single expression of his face throughout most of the film.
One of the highlight performances is that of Wilson Bethel as a young Doc Holliday,
whose take on the character is very maniacal, to say the least.
Wichita is director Jacques Tourneur's retelling of the early, pre-Dodge City part of Wyatt
Earp's career. The film was notable for being Allied Artists' first release in CinemaScope,
and a prequel to John Ford's My Darling Clementine. According to Great Western Movies,
actor Joel McCrea was more popular than John Wayne at the time of filming.
“My name’s Earp. Wyatt Earp.”
In Wichita, McCrea plays a stern young Wyatt Earp. Some criticized the casting of McCrea,
because in real life the actor was 50 years old at the time of filming,
and Wyatt was much younger while working as a policeman in Wichita.
Many consider Hour of the Gun to be director John Sturges' best movie.
James Garner plays Wyatt Earp, and Jason Robards plays Doc Holliday
in the sequel to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Hour of the Gun goes into the little-discussed
third act of Wyatt's life, showing the paranoia and moral decline of the lawman.
The film was ahead of its time and took many risks when it came to its plot and climax,
which led to poor reception during its initial release
but much more relevance and appreciation many years later. According to TCM:
"The proffering of a fallen king, a hero weakened and ultimately destroyed by desire and revenge,
was unprecedented in the sixties Western film genre."
AMC notes that Garner would later portray Earp again in 1988, this time in the TV movie Sunset.
Stuart Lake sold the rights to his book, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, to the Fox Film Company
for $7,500 and loyally split $6,750 with Wyatt's wife, Josephine Marcus, according to HistoryNet.
Frontier Marshal was the first movie based on Lake's famous biography that made Wyatt
into an American hero. The protagonist, played by George O'Brien, is based on Earp but uses the name
Michael Wyatt. O'Brien would later work closely with director John Ford in many movies, and
became a Navy Captain during World War II. John Ford would eventually make the Wyatt Earp film
My Darling Clementine in 1946, which was based upon the second adaptation of Frontier Marshal.
An even earlier portrayal of Wyatt on the big screen was by Bert Lindley,
during a very brief scene in the 1923 silent movie Wild Bill Hickok.
While Frontier Marshal isn't the best portrayal of Wyatt onscreen, it was the first to give him
significant on screen time, and credit to his name as the legendary lawman of the Wild West.
Released in 1939, Frontier Marshal was the second version of the film of the same name
released in 1934. It was also the first movie centered on the life of Wyatt to use his real
name. Wyatt was portrayed by actor Randolph Scott.
“You’re under arrest. Put down those guns.”
“Haha...heeeeeuuh.”
According to Great Western Movies, Scott plays a strong,
clean-cut Wyatt Earp who never makes a move on his love interest, Sarah, played by Nancy Gates.
Frontier Marshal would later serve as the basis of John Ford's 1946 remake,
My Darling Clementine. The film was known for its ensemble cast and acting
that dazzled viewers. Cesar Romero also enchants with his dark portrayal of Doc Halliday.
Released in 1971, Doc is a very unique addition to the film renditions of Wyatt Earp
because it made a statement about the Vietnam War's impact on America.
Screenwriter Pete Hamill made this apparent connection explicit, saying:
"We were continuing to fight [in Vietnam] because of some peculiar notions of national macho pride.
Indochina was Dodge City, and the American[s] were some collective version of Wyatt Earp."
As HistoryNet notes, the film was known for being one of the "dirty" Westerns popular in
the early 1970s for presenting a crude, realistic portrayal with dirty, weathered sets and costumes.
The film was also noted for its revisionism,
rewriting the characters fans were used to seeing in previous Wyatt Earp movies.
Paul Mavis of DVDTalk described Harris Yulin's version of Wyatt as a:
"cold-blooded, Nixonian politician who doles out smarmy, unconvincing
platitudes about making Tombstone a better place to live for families,
all the while plotting and scheming to take over the town and bleed it dry."
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was John Sturges' first feature film based on Wyatt Earp.
Legendary actors Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas star as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. According to
the Mark C. Carnes book, Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, the film focused more
on the psychology of the relationship between Doc and Earp, and stayed closer to historical
fact than previous Wyatt screen adaptations. AMC notes that while the cast was brilliant,:
"the movie's true star will always be the tour de force shoot-out that gives the movie its name. The
elaborately staged scene took a reported 44 hours to film (for a mere six minutes of screen time)."
Lancaster's portrayal of Wyatt is considered by some critics as underplayed and reactionary
to his supporting cast. When it comes to Kirk Douglas playing Doc Holliday,
John G. Nettles of PopMatters writes:
"Douglas, on the other hand, is clearly having fun,
even if no one else is. The flamboyant Doc Holliday is the Hamlet of the Western,
a role with so many layers and shades that whoever plays it inevitably dominates the film."
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was the first adult Western on television,
and became a top-ten-rated series, reports the Los Angeles Times. Actor Hugh O'Brian became a
household name and earned Emmy nominations for his portrayal of the O.K. Corral icon.
The series followed Wyatt from the first episode, where he becomes marshal of Ellsworth,
Kansas, to later episodes, where the lawman moves to Dodge City.
Actor Hugh O'Brian took the role seriously and spent lots of time
developing the character of Wyatt for the ABC series. One of his most proud
achievements as Wyatt was developing the fast draw the lawman was known for.
“It’s important to draw fast and get off the first shot,
but it’s much more important to have your bullet go where you want it to go.”
The actor told The Archive of American Television in 2005:
"I didn't want to force them into having to cut away whenever that happened;
I wanted it to be realistic."
Kevin Costner stars as Wyatt Earp in a three-hour-plus biographical film that
aims to cover the entirety of Wyatt's life. According to The Morning Call, Costner had
approached director Lawrence Kasdan about making a miniseries on Earp. Kasdan turned down the idea of
a miniseries and opted to make a full-length film about the Wild West lawman instead.
Kasdan explained the significance of Costner's performance, saying:
"To me, great acting is the closest you can get to the truth of the moment. And
I don't think there's anyone in the world who understands how to act for a camera
better than Kevin Costner does. Wyatt Earp is a major piece of acting from Costner.
He goes from real youth and innocence to a tragically earned wisdom.
He plays it perfectly, calibrates it just so. And never once begs for your sympathy."
The film was more historically accurate than most others based on Wyatt Earp.
According to Mark C. Carnes in Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies,
Kevin Costner claimed his version of Earp was constructed, quote,
"within the bounds of historical fact." However, many critics complained that the film focused too
much on retelling the accuracy of Wyatt's life and not about what made him so iconic. Stephen
Hunter of The Baltimore Sun said the film was, quote, "a myth in search of a man."
When comparing 1993’s Tombstone to 1994’s Wyatt Earp, more Western fans and critics have chosen
Tombstone as the better film. It was indeed a gunslinging showdown between both movies,
with Tombstone also winning at the box office by earning $56 million,
more than double Wyatt Earp's earnings.
Tombstone focused on more than just Wyatt Earp's character, and the film wasn't afraid to take
artistic liberties that weren't too distracting from a realistic portrayal of Wyatt Earp. The film
contained an ensemble cast, with Val Kilmer's iconic part as Doc Holliday at the center.
“I beg to differ, Sir. We started a game we never got to finish.”
Kurt Russell put a lot of work into the character of Wyatt
and even more behind the camera. Kilmer told The Hollywood Reporter:
"I have such admiration for Kurt as he basically sacrificed lots of energy that
would have gone into his role, to save the film. Everyone cared, don't get me wrong,
but Kurt put his money where his mouth was. [...] I watched Kurt sacrifice his own role and energy
to devote himself as a storyteller, even going so far as to draw up shot lists to help our
replacement director, George Cosmatos, who came in with only two days prep."
My Darling Clementine is one of director John Ford's best films,
focusing on Wyatt Earp as he helped restore law and order
by bringing civilization to the Wild West. According to Britannica:
"[My Darling Clementine] was one of the first movies to elevate Wyatt Earp
to mythical status and helped establish the legend of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral."
The screenplay may have been historically inaccurate,
but audiences were treated to a masterclass in directing by Ford,
and a cinematic experience that painted a close-enough picture of the real Wyatt Earp.
TCM notes that Ford concentrated on the smaller, mundane moments of Earp's life,
such as his visits to the barber or his attraction to the new woman in town. This use of filmmaking
also explains why Criterion selected the shot of Wyatt casually leaning back on his chair,
overseeing the town in a subtle and very concentrated way, for its cover. Last but
not least, Ford does the iconic shoot-out at the O.K. Corral just right. These are the reasons why
we had to go with My Darling Clementine as the best film portrayal ever of Wyatt Earp.
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