To me the most historically correct Doc Holliday in movies was Dennis Quaid in “Wyatt Earp”.His Doc Holliday (he lost a ton of weight for this role) was perfect, though not as entertaining as Val Kilmer’s great portrayal. Like the real Bat Masterson, there’s little evidence of the real Doc Holliday actually killing many guys in gunfights except when he, Doc I mean, was in Tombstone. I think both Kilmer and Quaid deserved at least Oscar nominations. Here’s my favorite scene from Wyatt Earp though not documented by history. It does show how guys can instantly judge the character of each other, though. Something we all have done where you just get an honest vibe from someone then proven right later.

Wyatt Earp Meets Doc Holliday - YouTube

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

,

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Death? Smile back...

Wyatt Burp, or may I just
call you Wyatt?

I'll go along with the Quaid
assessment although no
one today really knows the
whole truth.

Years ago I did read a story
that in Tombstone, the
"cowboys" did make fun of
Doc as being a skinny little
weakling.

And Virgil Earp reportedly
said he never saw Doc actually
drunk even though he started
each morning with a full
pint of bourbon.

Some actual insight into Doc
was purportedly lost when
letters he sent his cousin
were destroyed at her death.
He always loved her. She
spent most of her life
as a nun in the Order of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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Ubi Est Mea

In real life I suspect that Doc wasn’t much fun to be around.
An Alcoholic Dentist with medical problems and a bad attitude don’t sound like a fun guy to me.
But the Movie Doc- Val Kilmer hands down.
And I have posted, he took a good movie over the Top and turned it into a great movie.

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I agree; both Kilmer and Quaid were great, and should have received some recognition. I enjoyed both movies, but thought the role played by Val Kilmer in Tombstone was more entertaining.

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John

the most ridiculous Doc Holliday was Victor Mature. Why John Ford chose a body builder who looked like Samson (who he also played, of course) to play a guy dying of “consumption” is beyond me. Plus they made him a surgeon, not a dentist.

I live down the street from Doc Holliday' s home/office in Fayetteville, GA. Museum now. Never even been in?

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Dave Ramsey Cultist

Both actors were entertaining and certainly added color to the story, but then again they were acting. Hollywood always has to take licenses with historical events to make it interesting to viewers, therefore most viewers, who aren't knowledgeable in the historical aspects of the story, have no idea where fact and fiction intertwine.

Case in point, in this scene Dennis Quaid is wearing sunglasses, but sunglasses were extremely rare in the late 1800's. Medical sunglasses were used to correct cataracts and other eye problems as prescribed by doctors back east, but I have not been able to find Doc Holiday had significant eye problems among his other health issues. There is some speculation by novelist Elena Sandidge that Doc "may" have worn spectacles at some point, but nothing definitive.

My point is, no one really knows how accurate either Hollywood actor was in portraying Doc Holiday, only that they were entertaining, which is what their job was and they were both good at it.

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Live long and prosper

If Earp had been as legendary
as Stuart Lake made him out
to be in his 1931 book, his
name would have been more
prominent in literature and
movies before his death in
1929.

Lake, a movie screenwriter,
really gave Earp his legendary
status and that of the Tombstone
days. Much of Lake's book is
extremely fanciful and is
classified as historical fiction.

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Ubi Est Mea

That was a great scene to watch. Thank you for the reference.

I also happen to agree with your assessment. So true.

"Tombstone" was one of my favorite westerns. Val Kilmer alone was worth the price of admission.





For what it's worth, here's the REAL Tombstone AZ.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

LOL. Some operatic heroines "are dying of consumption" (Mimi in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata), but amazingly manage to fill a 3,000 seat theatre with their voices, yet we buy into the illusion for the sake of entertainment! Similarly, no teenage girl could actually sing the role of Strauss's "Salome." Conversely, the sopranos who can also have to contend with the Dance of the Seven Veils

Speaking of Tombstone-
Here are the Earps and Doc in their actual positions just the Gun Fight.
L-R Morgan, Doc, Virgil, Wyatt.
Wyatt gave to Doc the Shotgun that he had just ‘borrowed’ from the Wells Fargo office.
The Building on the right is the C S Fly Photo Studio - Boarding House.
Doc and Bignose Kate were staying there.
Some students of the Shootout at the OK Corral think that Doc cocking the Shotgun was the pivotal event which caused the gunfight.
Or at least caused it to happen when it did.
Bob Boze Bell says- Never take a drunken Dentist to a Gunfight!
The actual gunfight zone is fenced off.
I’m leaning over the fence shooting between the Cowboys.

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Kirk Douglas

I think I have seen 7 movies that centered around Wyatt and Doc.

I was entertained by all with Kilmer and Quaid jockeying for first with Mature stuck in the gate.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Tombstone is one of my favorite westerns.

Honestly, never really cared much for Wyatt Earp. Just another one of Costner's overly long, slow and muddled spectacles.

what a coincidence. I just came across a video by a guy I really like who visits old west places and he did this one about all the actors who played Doc. I mentioned that he missed Dennis Hopper in Wild Times with Sam Elliott. Unless he did and I missed it.

Who Played Doc Holliday Best? The Many Actors Who Portrayed Doc - YouTube

I liked Kilmer in Thunderheart, that's because he wasn't wearing a big dumb fake looking mustache.

Matt, I had forgotten about Purgatory. Fun fantasy movie.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

My favorite Doc Holiday line in the Tombstone movie was when the outlaws were squared off with the Earps and Doc outside the Saloon. One outlaw acted like he wasn't afraid of Doc because he said that Doc was probably so drunk he was "seeing double". Doc then calmly said to the man "I have two guns, one for each of ya".

Kurt Russell played a better Wyatt Earp than Kevin Costner.

Add that to Kilmer's Doc, and Tombstone is the winner IMHO.

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BTDT, Got The T-Shirt

I remember reading somewhere that Kilmer actually did some research into how Holliday would have spoken and his mannerisms.

I'd say Kilmer/ Quaid were pretty equal.

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Retired Career Security Guard

You guys are forgetting Sam Gilman | Memory Alpha | Fandom.

Just had to add a Star Trek reference to the thread.

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Or something like that . . .

I watched the video in the link provided by Wyatt Burp and he is actually mentioned. I remember the ST episode and was wondering if it’d be mentioned.

I don’t know about best historical accuracy, but I think Val Kilmer wins hands down. He played Doc with true panache.

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I favored most the scene when Dennis Quaid described his relation with Dave Rudebaugh, and his own self control. The old southerners seemed to have such an educated respect for language and the ability to insult without being rude or coarse.

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In Purgatory don't forget JD Souther as Jesse James.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

No Jason Robards fans?

I was just going to mention Jason Robards. I also think James Garner was a great Wyatt Earp.

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Wheel guns are real guns.

Of all the movies about or featuring Jesse James, it’s amazing that this rather obscure TV movie had one of the most believable versions. He was much more historically correct than the other three guys in it. Brad Pitt was tops for me in that great movie with too long a title to write here. I had no idea that was JD Souther until about the third time I saw it. He was a lucky guy. He got to have fun with Linda Ronstadt in the 70s.

He was real good in that. And James Garner played Earp twice.

I doubt any one could possibly know who played the best Doc. because none of us knew him personally and since he is so long gone, even his relatives probably know very little truth of how the man actually was.

That said, Val Kilmer was indeed a VERY VERY entertaining Doc and IMHO stole the movie!

Quaid was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Holliday. No surprise regarding Costner's Earp. He's like Nicholson, the same character in every film, he just changes clothes. The one, (false), similarity with both Tombstone and Wyatt Earp showed Holliday shooting Johnny Ringo. Neither Earp or Holliday were still in Arizona when Ringo died.

Any way you look at it we all would want Doc as a friend. We don't find loyality like that very much anymore. From the time I was a kid and watched Wyatt Earp TV show, Doc was my favorite for all time.

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Too Soon Old, Too Late Schmart

I looked up the 1995 Oscar’s which were for 1994 movies and didn’t see Quaid there. Golden Globes, either. But Martin Landau won supporting actor for Ed Wood as playing Bela Lugosi and really deserved it.

When I saw "Ed Wood" I thought
too bad Bela Lugosi wasn't as
great an actor as Landau.

Landau in his youngeer days would
have made a great big screen Doc.

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Ubi Est Mea

All these films were good ones despite the lack of historical accuracy. "Hour of the Gun" easily had the best soundtrack of all the films and the excellent cast rivaled that of 1957's "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral". To add to the impressive credentials, both of these earlier movies were directed by the best action director ever, John Sturges.

Right. You can instantly tell a John Sturges western because of the epic and extra loud music. Especially as guys all ride in on horses together. John Ireland Has the honor of getting killed by the Earps/Holliday twice. “In “Clementine..” and in this Sturges version.
Speaking of accuracy, or lack of, in “Wyatt Earp” Dennis Quaid’s Sheriffs Model Colt has a cross pin “smokeless powder” cylinder pin button on it. That’s it. I’m never watching that movie again!!

Well, Wyatt,

I'll join you in condemning
Colt SAAs with cylinder crosspins
but I also add any Western that
takes place before 1896 should
not have pants with belt/belt
loops, low saddle cantles or
batwing chaps nor toppers with
the Stockman crease.

However, I'll allow the 1892
Winchester for any film depicting
the pre Civil War era to the
present time.

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Ubi Est Mea

What about Bones?

Here’s how nitpickish I get tripping on this stuff. Tombstone was so accurate about guns and holsters. You know that and also about the saddles which I don’t. But there was one ironic gun mistake. when Billy Clanton goes for his Colt at the OK Corral, notice that it has black hard rubber grips. Not available until 1882, a year later, and not without the Eagle on them like his until the 1890s. the irony being he had a real Colt while the other “Colts” were probably Italian. this is the ridiculous stuff I bring up that get’s my wife’s eyes rolling. All in fun as we all love these films, mistakes and all.

Bones (DeForest Kelly) played Tom McLaury of the Clanton gang. Doc Holliday was played by Sam Gilman.

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Wyatt,

Regarding the guns in "Tombstone."
See if you can find a copy of
"Tombstone. The Guns and Gear"
by Peter Sherayko, who was tech
adviser for guns, gear, clothing.
He also appeared in the movie
as Turkey Creek Jack Johnson.

Just a tidbit, Ringo's Colt was
a Frontier Six-Shooter of recent
vintage cut from 7.5 inches
to the 4.75. And Doc's guns
were from the era, a 1897 .45
and a .38 "Lightning." A
double of the .45 didn't have
the cross cylinder pin.

And quite a few of the other
guns were close to the original
time period. Of course, others
were recent Italian made.

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Ubi Est Mea

Spock is wearing a Rod Redwing rig, maybe made by legendary tech gun coach and exhibition shooter Redwing.

You're right. Don't know where I read that, but he should've been.

Historically, Wyatt normally carried his pistol in a special leather lined pocket in his overcoat. According to the court transcripts when the Earps were tried after the gunfight when Behan told the Earps that he had disarmed the Clantons /McLaureys Wyatt removed is pistol from his waistband an put it back in the coat pocket indicating that he wasn't expecting or looking for a fight.

If you're paying attention this is depicted in the movie Tombstone.

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Retired Career Security Guard

Pet peeve Scotty is pointing that gun right at Spock.

If I was Leonard Nimoy I would have said something and asked him to point that gun elsewhere prop gun or not

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Retired Career Security Guard

Historical correctness means nothing here.

Dana Delaney.

That is all I have to say.

Joanna Going is pretty easy on the eyes too.

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Retired Career Security Guard

In Allan Barra's book on the Earp/Tombstone affair, his chapter on Doc Holliday is titled: "Putting Clothes On A Ghost." Seems to show how much/far we have to wing it when portraying Doc.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Truth is if we knew more about
the real Doc he might be
dismissed as anything actually
worthy of a portrayal.

Not knowing allows for the
creation of better stories.

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