Doc Holliday in Film

Most old film versions of Doc aren’t terribly accurate, painting him as either a gunslinger or a lowlife or both, which he never appeared to be (most people who encountered him found him quite gentlemanly. And he was honest in his regular business dealings, if not always in his faro dealing). Actors who have played him include Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards and Cesar Romero. Most were the wrong physical type to play the slim and sickly Doc.  Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer also accurately note in interviews included on the Vista Series DVD of the film Tombstone that old movies portraying Doc Holliday seldom bother about two of the more essential aspects of his life: his refined southern background and his close friendship with Wyatt Earp.

Tombstone's veridical "huckleberry:" Val Kilmer as Doc

The most appealing and interesting portrayal of Doc Holliday is undoubtedly Val Kilmer’s in Tombstone (1993). It may also be, in spite of its slick, action-oriented Hollywood production and condensed events, the most accurate in terms of capturing Doc’s Tombstone persona. Val Kilmer is exactly Doc’s height and build (a pale and slender, but not skeletal[[1]], 6 feet tall), and his costuming is accurate, for the most part[[2]], right down to the cravat and diamond stickpin. Kilmer’s portrayal captures Doc’s aristocratic Georgia accent, his age (30 years—the youngest of his OK Corral party), good looks, education and culture, gambling skill, drinking, cough, pallor, wit, outward attitude, and, of course, his loyalty to Wyatt Earp.

Some say he’s too likeable in the film, but Doc was described by several contemporaries as likeable as well as witty. Miguel Otero, who later became governor of New Mexico, befriended him in 1880 and said of Doc, “I met him frequently and found him to be a very likable fellow.” Also in 1880, Doc roomed with two other friends on Montezuma street in Prescott, AZ, Richard Elliot and John Gosper (who was Secretary of State of Arizona), both of whom found his company acceptable. He was also described by family friend Lee Smith in 1882 as “one of the best boys who ever lived, if he is left alone.” Virgil Earp described him as “gentlemanly” and “friendly” if somewhat “peculiar.” Wyatt and Morgan Earp, of course, were both close friends of his. Bat Masterson is the primary historical source from which the negative version of Doc (“...an ungovernable temper,” “...but three redeeming qualities[[3]],” “...among men who did not fear him, [he] was very much disliked”) is derived. But then, Bat and Doc had their differences, and many of his statements about Doc have proven false. It is also worth noting that Kilmer’s Doc admits in the film that he has few friends. Outwardly likeable, and doubtless equally changeable, as he could be at times, Doc was a man displaced from his social milieu, living by his wits on the greed of others, and therefore always something of an outsider. The film demonstrates this beautifully.

The most significant difference between the real Doc and Kilmer’s version is probably in the degree of general energy and charisma. The real Doc was probably more lowkey overall, although equally unmanageable when drunk. Doc might not have had quite the stylized quick-draw skill that Kilmer demonstrates in the film, but there are good indications that he was adept with a pistol. Of course, a major feature of Doc's activities that does not appear in this, or any, film is the number of times he was actually arrested and/or hauled into court, usually for "keeping a gaming table," and/or for "carrying a deadly weapon." The real Doc usually extricated himself from these situations by relying on both his wallet (paying fines and court costs) and his refined appearance.

Most of the events in the film Tombstone, are, of course, adaptations of events that actually occurred, although they are condensed in timeframe and dramatized or stylized for the screen. For instance, the stabbing of Ed Bailey that introduces viewers to Doc at the film’s outset is portrayed as occurring in Prescott, Arizona when it actually occurred in Fort Griffin, Texas, a few years earlier. Kate is shown coming to Doc’s aid during this scene, and she did, although the events were somewhat different, and certainly more prolonged. Confrontations in Tombstone with Ike Clanton, Johnny Tyler and others are mixed together, changed or dramatized for effect.

Doc’s drunken episodes are also somewhat minimized, although the fictionalized confrontation with Ike Clanton at the poker table is probably a good representation of how Doc could act when he was drinking (“Maybe poker's just not your game, Ike. I know, let’s have a spelling contest!”), and he and Ike did have their confrontations, albeit over other things (apparently they sometimes involved Doc goading Ike into screeching in his high-pitched voice, which one Tombstone local described as sounding like a “rusty hinge”).

Some have criticized Doc’s dialogue in the film, particularly his apparent criticism of the game of faro (“Since when is faro a business?” “Only suckers buck the tiger; the odds are all on the house”), since he himself played faro; but Doc, as a “well-equipped” faro dealer, was only too aware of the fact that, as the game was really played in the West, the odds usually did indeed favor the house. Doc often banked faro, but he himself (knowing the tricks of the trade) played the game only when he could find a reasonably honest one, or, perhaps, when his own professionalism precluded the dealer attempting to cheat him (successfully). Thus, he might very well have distinguished the game with which he was familiar from a legitimate business (like dentistry) or an “honest trade” (the term by which Kilmer’s Doc distinguishes the non-house game of poker).

Doc is also shown playing classical piano, a talent he actually possessed, and coolly coming to a surrounded Wyatt’s aid, which he did (albeit in Dodge, earlier). His participation in the OK Corral gunfight is portrayed with a good deal of accuracy, including his carrying Virgil’s shotgun and saying to McLaury: “You’re a daisy if you do.” The subsequent street standoff with Johnny Ringo is stylized, as is Doc’s participation in the activities of the Earp posse. The later showdown with Johnny Ringo is fictionalized, although Doc may have been involved somehow in Ringo’s death (Karen Holliday Tanner’s belief that Doc and Wyatt were indeed on Ringo’s trail in 1882 seems plausible, especially given the fact that they went to such pains to establish their whereabouts through interviews before abruptly meeting up and dropping out of sight at the time). While Doc’s Glenwood Springs death scene is also fictionalized (he died in a hotel rather than a sanitorium), his last words in the film may be accurate. Once again, however, Doc probably could not speak at all during his last couple of days (anyone with even a passing knowledge of the severity of the terminal stage of tuberculosis would have to acknowledge that this is likely the case).

DOC'S TOMBSTONE QUOTES

Accuracies and Inaccuracies in the Film Tombstone

Doc Holliday: Interestingly, and to reiterate, the most accurate character portrayal overall in the film is actually of Doc. This can be credited to screenwriter Kevin Jarre’s excellent dialogue and Val Kilmer’s equally excellent interpretation of the character. As stated above, Kilmer’s Doc is spot-on in almost every way. From the carefully modulated and articulated Georgia tones (Doc successfully underwent corrective speech therapy as a young child) to the ready and derisive humor, Kilmer captures the fine details in addition to Doc’s primary attributes: the wry wit, the deadly fearlessness, the devil-may-care attitude and the genuineness of his friendship. As indicated above, some would take issue with the validity of the portrayal overall in terms of Doc's charisma and likeability, but again, there are good indications that the historical record has been somewhat negatively skewed in this regard (partly due to the influence of Bat Masterson's Gunfighters of the Western Frontier) and that Doc generally got along well enough with people of social acumen and standing, if not with the rougher folk from whom he often derived his living as a gambler.

Doc's weapons are accurate. Doc carried a nickel-plated, ivory-handled revolver (or two). Kilmer’s Doc carries two pistols during the OK Corral fight, and Doc only had one, a notable difference in detail, but he evidently did sometimes carry more than one pistol, so even this deviation doesn’t seem terribly inauthentic. Doc’s knife in the film is probably about the right size and type.

Doc and Kate's relationship is fairly accurate. Much has been made of the fact that Doc and Kate frequently split up and went their separate ways, and, based on this, many have made exaggerated claims about quarreling and violence. Doc and Kate were both independent spirits, but they actually appeared to get along pretty well for the most part. Kate described one of their partings thus: "I am going to Globe," to which Doc responded, "All right. I'll be in Globe in a few days...I don't think I will like it in Tombstone anyway." She added, "[The next morning] we started out again: Doc to Tombstone and I to Globe." However, one of Kate's reasons for going to Globe was that she did not necessarily approve of Doc's "tying himself to the Earp brothers," as she put it. The Vista Series DVD of Tombstone features a parting scene between Doc and Kate during which she expresses a similar sentiment, albeit somewhat more dramatically.

Actually, in film depictions, Kate seldom receives credit for staying with Doc as she did during the long, painful months just before his death at the Hotel Glenwood. She also saw to his funeral and personal effects after his death. Kate liked to claim that she was Doc's wife, which was not true, but it should be pointed out that she played the part well enough in his final hour of need.

Doc and Wyatt's relationship is accurate.  Not many people understood Doc, and few appreciated his wry humor, but Wyatt did.  He even referred to him one time as a "wag" and a "scamp," which resembles the language that Russell uses in the film: "that ole rip...he makes me laugh."  Wyatt did not write a pamphlet about Doc, as he does in the film.  However, he did speak highly of Doc in interviews, lamented the inaccurate legends that had arisen around his friend's name, and, at one point, attempted to convince a writer interested in penning his biography to write one about Doc instead.  The sentiment, then, if not the pamphlet, is accurate.

Doc’s death scene contains most of the inaccuracies in his Tombstone characterization. Wyatt was not there (Kate was), and Doc was almost certainly not in love with his cousin Martha Anne Holliday (also known as "Mattie," who later became Sister Mary Melanie), although they were close and corresponded. As an only child, Doc relied on his cousins for sibling-like relationships. The closest, at least in his early life, was with his cousin Robert, who was also a dapper Georgia dentist. Doc’s few remaining possessions after his death were shipped to Sister Mary Melanie, probably the only relative at that point (1887) whom Doc felt would not be embarrassed by the association. In fact, she appeared to be, and Doc’s uncle picked up his things at the train station.

Wyatt Earp is portrayed as a reluctant lawman and a man with an investment in justice in its more conventional sense. But Wyatt was not a reluctant lawman; in fact, he was an ambitious one. Of course, his investment in law and order extended only up to the point wherein it did not interfere with exacting vengeance for the death of his brother. On the other hand, Doc and Wyatt were in a somewhat vulnerable position in Tombstone after the OK Corral, to a greater or lesser degree at the mercy of outlaws and corrupt officials—going on the offensive was perhaps their best defense. Kurt Russell seems a bit too wholesome to play Wyatt Earp, who was known to be associated, apparently in both a personal and business capacity, with a bordello or two, but he conveys Wyatt’s steely nerve pretty well, and, finally, he looks like him.

Wyatt Earp and Josie Marcus’s relationship is an adaptation/dramatization of a real involvement between the two, one which caused hard feelings between Wyatt and Sheriff John Behan.

Ike Clanton is not portrayed accurately in the film. Ike was not an illiterate, tobacco-spewing “idiot.” He could read, and he wrote in a splashy script.

Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius were nominal leaders of the loosely organized outlaw cowboy factions, but they were not quite the villainous central masterminds that they are depicted in the film. And the "cowboys" usually didn't shoot up weddings so much as steal cattle. However, Curly Bill did kill Marshall Fred White, and Ringo and Doc did have a standoff in the street. Therefore, some of the major details in the film are accurate enough to compensate at least partly for the dramatized characterizations. The film-makers undoubtedly found it necessary to create opponents larger-than-life enough to provide foils for Wyatt and Doc. But Johnny Ringo was not exactly a quick-draw artist, although he did have something of a reputation as a gunman. And he certainly did not know Latin. It was Wyatt who most likely killed him—he claimed he did (although Wyatt gunned down Stillwell and Brocius with a shotgun, and Ringo was killed by one pistol shot to the head). No one knows for certain who killed him, of course, but there is at least some small chance that it was Doc. At any rate, it makes a fine showdown scene.

Johnny Tyler: Billy Bob Thornton’s Johnny Tyler is shown disrupting the business at the Oriental saloon, which the real Johnny Tyler did. Wyatt did eject Tyler from the saloon, and an inebriated Doc found this quite amusing. Of course, the film does not show the subsequent events: Doc and Johnny’s standoff and Doc’s injuring the Oriental bartenders who refused to return his weapons—and who attempted to pistol-whip him when he returned to the saloon re-armed in spite of them.

Tombstone Events: The most significant set of events omitted from Tombstone are those surrounding the robbery (and its aftermath) of the Kinnear (Benson) stagecoach. The Kinnear stage robbery was the single most significant event that led to all of the trouble in Tombstone in 1881-82.

There are articles and accounts that dismiss the Tombstone events, and particularly the gunfight near the OK Corral, as merely “a turf war” that derived from “trash talk” and “booze.” But, the gunfight was actually the product of all the tensions/confrontations that arose from a crime (the Kinnear stage robbery and murders), a nervous informant who was probably involved in the crime himself (Ike Clanton), an easily scapegoated man with a shady reputation (Doc) accused falsely of the crime by the criminals and/or their associates, and his somewhat less-than-saintly friends in law enforcement (the Earps). It is true that none of the participants were heroic or blameless, but to assign equal footing to all of them is certainly questionable. It is also true that there was both trash talk and a good deal of booze on both sides, but, again, there was more justification on one side than on the other. The Clantons, McLaurys, et al. didn’t end up outside Doc’s dwelling by coincidence on the afternoon of October 26, 1881. They were waiting for him (with his death, the Kinnear stage holdup conflicts might be nicely lain to rest), and they were spoiling for a fight, which they allowed to be widely known. Under the circumstances, a showdown was inevitable.

Visual Detail: Visual detail in any film is primarily a function of the film’s thematic cohesion and comprehensibility to viewers; therefore, small deviations from fact for the sake of this are of small concern—Val Kilmer’s and Michael Biehn’s “imperial” moustache arrangements are clearly meant to offer a sinister mirror effect, to demonstrate that they are adversaries, and it doesn’t matter much that neither Doc nor Ringo actually wore them. The cowboys’ red sashes are a guide to viewers to help identify the “bad guys” in a film with a large cast of secondary characters. It doesn’t matter that there were no red sashes in Tombstone. The faro layout used in the film is slightly off, probably because the table used in the production was too small to accommodate a perfectly authentic layout: it’s close enough. The costuming, overall, is fairly accurate, as are most of the building interiors and the streets of Tombstone, including the lot by the OK Corral.

Wyatt Earp's Doc Holliday

Dennis Quaid’s acclaimed turn as Doc in the film Wyatt Earp (1994), while interesting, and in some ways accurate, has a few readily apparent flaws:

Dennis Quaid as Doc

·         The 39-year-old Quaid is a bit too old to play Doc Holliday (who did not live past thirty-six). Doc was in his twenties in Dodge City and only 30 years old at the time of the Tombstone events (three years younger than Wyatt and eight years younger than Virgil Earp). In this film, Quaid's Doc remarks after Morgan Earp's death that he loved him like he was his "own little brother." Doc was indeed fond of Morgan, but he was actually a few months younger than Morgan as well, making Doc the youngest of Wyatt Earp's OK Corral foursome. In later years (after 1883), the increasingly ill and chemically-dependent Doc did look older than he actually was, but this film concentrates on a timeframe prior to this.

·         In spite of his lauded weight-loss for the role, and Doc’s established illness, he may be a bit too thin for the timeframe in question. The 6’2” Quaid apparently lost 40 lbs. for the role, an admirable thespian accomplishment, but perhaps not altogether valid. Doc’s 1880 and 1882 photos show him at the thin, but relatively normal, weight he carried when his TB was in partial remission (according to Kate, about 160 lbs). While Doc was quite slim for a man of his height, he didn't become skeletal in appearance until after his bouts with pneumonia in 1883.

·         Quaid's Doc stoops slightly throughout most of the film, but Doc was described by a journalist in 1882 as standing "straight as an arrow."  It was only later, after his illness grew worse, that his posture was described as "bent."

·         Quaid’s Doc is also less genuinely gentlemanly, less well dressed, and has, once again, something of a lowlife quality that is probably misleading. During Wyatt and Doc's first meeting in the film, Doc knocks over a whiskey bottle which Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp helps him to stand upright, a gesture somewhat symbolic of the way in which the characters will be portrayed throughout the film. We also see Doc drunken, shaky and nearly abject. These scenes introduce the audience to a washed-up southern gambler in his nadir, and do not accurately reflect the relative vitality that Doc would undoubtedly have possessed during his actual first meeting with Wyatt (at age 26) and during his life up to 1883. Also, of course, the introductory scene is based upon Wyatt's misleading statements about meeting Doc while looking for Dave Rudabaugh. Wyatt had most likely met Doc earlier, in 1877, in Deadwood.

·         Although the accent and speech patterns are authentic, Quaid's portrayal largely fails to capture Doc’s famous wit and way with a phrase. During the aforementioned opening scene, Doc asks forthrightly, if somewhat clumsily, "Wyatt Earp, do you believe in friendship?" It's hard to imagine the sardonic Doc Holliday asking such a question. Again, the script of Wyatt Earp generally attempts with only limited success to portray Doc's wit. For instance, Quaid's Doc makes a remark about the town "Tombstone" sounding quiet. Such attempts hardly stand comparison to, say, the cup-twirling scene in Tombstone.

·         The Georgia gentleman did lose his temper on occasion (and was known to curse with some vehemence) but he would have, no doubt, abhorred losing control of his demeanor the way Quaid's Doc does in this film. It simply was not part of his breeding.

·         Doc did not fall down during the shootout at the OK Corral. He was grazed in the hip, but, according to the best accounts, he continued to fire and did not appear to notice the injury.

·         Doc and Kate are shown brawling in this film, which is somewhat questionable on its face, but particularly so because of one of the reasons given: Isabella Rossellini's Kate claims she can't stand Doc coughing his germs on her. But the vast majority of people in the mid to late 19th century did not think tuberculosis was caused by germs. Both popular and medical opinion of the day held that it was either hereditary or, if transmissible in some other way, reliant upon a predisposition of the individual. One can only imagine the sort of panic and stigma Doc would have faced if his disease had been understood as contagious in the modern sense. "Consumption," as it was then called, was instead associated with a temperamental susceptibility or weakness; hence the term "lunger," which described a type of individual rather than the disease from which he suffered. Tuberculosis as a contagion is a 20th century perception.  See NIAID, Tuberculosis in History: "Focus on Tuberculosis: I Must Die."

·         Making the same factual error as Tombstone, the credits at the end of Wyatt Earp claim that Doc Holliday died in a sanitorium in Colorado. Again, Doc died at the Hotel Glenwood. 

Wyatt Earp thus presents a man somewhat older, thinner, and more washed-up and debauched than Doc actually was during the Dodge City and Tombstone years. And the portrayal overall seems to adhere to Bat Masterson’s negative account of Doc (as a man having few redeeming qualities), a characterization which has only limited merit. At some points, the film does more accurately portray historical events, such as the controversy over Tombstone's stage robberies, but for a film with pretensions to historical accuracy, it may fall a bit short overall in its portrayal of Doc Holliday.

Summary

Finally, in terms of character and charisma, both Quaid and Kilmer may miss the mark a bit, but to a different degree, and definitely in opposite directions. Kilmer's Doc in Tombstone is more charismatic and powerful than the real Doc, but he nevertheless probably looks, dresses, speaks and acts more like the real Doc than Dennis Quaid does in Wyatt Earp. Quaid's Doc may be less appealing, but the negativity and pathos of his portrayal is a good counterpoint to keep in mind when trying to envision the real Doc, who can be glimpsed somewhere between the two performances.

Footnotes

[1] Karen Holliday Tanner puts his pre-1883 weight at just under 160 lbs, a thin but normal weight for a man of his height.  At 155 lbs, Doc’s Body Mass Index is still a normal 21-21.6 (within this range depending on his exact height between 5’11” and 6’). While he had begun losing weight as early as 1873, his radical weight loss did not begin until 1883 when he first contracted pneumonia. By 1884, he was down to 122 lbs, giving him an abnormal BMI of about 16.5-17, dangerously thin.

[2] The OK Corral gunfight costume is slightly off: Doc wore a broad hat, a black suit with a light colored linen shirt and a long gray ulster coat. Kilmer’s Doc wears a broad hat, black trousers, a gray shirt and a long black ulster coat. Of course, his sweat-soaked gray shirt is probably the unavoidably inaccurate result of filming during the warmer months a scene that actually occurred during cold weather. However, some re-enactors seem to get the ensemble more wrong, dressing Doc too lightly in a gray suit/frock coat. Kilmer’s Doc wears such a suit, quite rightly, on a warm afternoon. See photo above.

[3] According to Masterson, Doc's three redeeming qualities were as follows: “his courage, his sterling loyalty and his affection for Wyatt Earp.” Masterson added that "Damon did no more for Pythias than Holliday did for Earp," referring to a figure from Greek mythology who was imprisoned and who nearly died for the sake of his friend.

–Most factual information derived from Karen Holliday Tanner’s biography, Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1998).

-Other information about the O.K. Corral gunfight from various other sources, including the documentary "Investigating History: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" on The History Channel, 2004, and excerpts from the Tombstone Epitaph, particularly its coverage of the OK Corral gunfight and coverage of the Earp posse's activities in Martin's Tombstone's Epitaph (U of New Mexico Press, 1951), and the transcript of the O.K. Corral Inquest.

–Other sources consulted include Ben Traywick's book, John Henry, The Doc Holliday Story, Bat Masterson's Gunfighters of the Western Frontier, Jeff Morey's article "Blaze Away! Doc Holliday's Role in the West's Most Famous Gunfight," as well as various historical websites and online historical newspaper excerpts.

–Tombstone thumbnail images copyright Cinergi Productions and are reproduced here for informational purposes only.