60 Fun Facts About Tombstone

Who plays Wyatt Earp in the 1993 film Tombstone?

He and producer James Jacks trimmed the sprawling script during shooting to focus on the Wyatt–Doc friendship.

Which actor's turn as the tubercular, hard-drinking Doc Holliday drew the film's most praise?

Roger Ebert later called the performance the definitive saloon cowboy of our time.

Who plays Virgil Earp, the brother who takes the marshal's badge?

The same year he played General John Buford in Gettysburg, another mustache-heavy role.

Who plays Morgan Earp, the youngest brother?

Morgan is the brother killed by a shot through a window in the film's second half.

Michael Biehn plays which member of the Cowboys?

Biehn was a close friend of the original director and considered quitting when he was fired.

Who plays the Cowboys' leader, "Curly Bill" Brocius?

In the film Curly Bill is acquitted of killing Marshal Fred White for lack of witnesses.

Which screen legend plays rancher Henry Hooker, who shelters the posse?

Harry Carey Jr., a veteran of John Ford's stock company, is also in the cast as Marshal Fred White.

Whose voice delivers the film's opening and closing narration?

The closing voice-over notes that Wyatt and Josephine stayed together 47 years until his death in 1929.

Which actress plays Josephine Marcus, the traveling performer Wyatt falls for?

She recalled the replacement director's very first day on set was her big love scene in the field.

Billy Bob Thornton ad-libbed his lines as card dealer Johnny Tyler; what was his only direction?

The scene exists to show Wyatt using psychology rather than a gun to intimidate.

Who wrote the screenplay and was fired as director a month into filming?

He had written Glory and was overwhelmed by his first directing job, falling behind schedule.

The actor playing Wyatt claimed he ghost-directed the film. Who is the credited director?

He had directed Rambo: First Blood Part II for the same executive producer.

According to the star, which action actor recommended the replacement director to him?

The star said he promised to keep the ghost-directing arrangement secret while the credited director lived.

Every mustache in the film was real except one. Which character's actor wore the fake?

Jon Tenney had to be clean-shaven for his previous project.

Doc plays a nocturne on the piano. Which composer wrote it?

The actor could not play piano and rehearsed that single piece for months.

Which director cast the film's Doc Holliday as Batman after seeing his performance?

Michael Keaton walked away from a third Batman film over creative differences seven months later.

The Doc Holliday actor's 2020 memoir takes its title from which line?

It came out a year before the documentary Val about his career and cancer treatment.

Roger Ebert said reading that which politician loved the Doc Holliday performance pushed him to see the film?

Ebert recommended the movie; his partner Gene Siskel did not.

Tombstone opened in third place at the US box office. Which two films beat it?

Its takings actually rose 35% in week two, unusual for a wide release.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

It ranks around 25th among Westerns released since 1979.

Kevin Costner quit before making a rival 1994 film. What was his dispute with the writer?

Costner then used his clout to press studios not to distribute the competing film.

Who directed the rival 1994 film Wyatt Earp, released six months later?

It ran three hours, cost $63 million and grossed less than the $25 million Tombstone.

Who composed the film's score, performed by the Sinfonia of London?

He was Oscar-nominated for another Western, Silverado, and lost to Out of Africa.

On what date did the film open in wide release in the United States?

The soundtrack album was released the very same day.

Which studio-theme park, built in 1939 for the film Arizona, supplied the movie's main street?

Rio Bravo, El Dorado and the 1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral were all shot on the same lot.

Besides Old Tucson, which Cochise County movie set was combined to make the town look bigger?

The same set later stood in for the town of Redemption in The Quick and the Dead.

In the film, what does a member of the Cowboys gang wear to mark his allegiance?

Ike Clanton survives the vendetta at the end by tearing his off and renouncing the gang.

The film opens with the Cowboys shooting up what event in a Mexican town?

A priest warns them of the Four Horsemen before he is shot, a prophecy Wyatt's posse fulfills.

The closing narration names which two Western movie stars among Wyatt's pallbearers?

The real Wyatt died in Los Angeles in 1929 at 80, the last survivor of the gunfight.

Who wrote the 1994 paperback novelization of the screenplay?

It was published by Berkley on New Year's Day 1994, a week after the film opened.

Which future Lost star plays the town's mayor and newspaper publisher?

The real mayor was also the man who ran the San Carlos Apache reservation before coming to town.

Which Beverly Hills, 90210 star plays deputy Billy Breakenridge?

He appears in the poster billing block alongside Billy Zane and Michael Rooker.

What grade did CinemaScore audiences give the film?

Critics were cooler: 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus ends 'Tombstone is your huckleberry.'

In which year did Disney release a 4K Ultra HD restoration of the film?

The theatrical cut first hit Blu-ray in 2010.

The real town took its name from what?

A fellow Army scout had warned Schieffelin the only rock he'd find out there would be his own tombstone.

In what year was the first Tombstone claim filed, kicking off the silver rush?

The town itself was surveyed and founded two years later on Goose Flats.

On what date did the Earps and Doc Holliday face the Cowboys in the famous gunfight?

It was an unusually cold, windy day, which is why the lawmen wore the long coats seen in every film version.

Which three men were killed in the gunfight?

All three are buried in Boothill; Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight unarmed.

The gunfight did not happen inside the corral. It took place in a narrow lot beside what?

The lot belonged to C. S. Fly and sat on Fremont Street, six doors west of the corral's rear entrance.

Roughly how long did the shooting last?

About thirty shots were fired, and black-powder smoke made it hard for anyone to see who shot first.

Why is Tombstone's old cemetery called Boothill?

Founded in 1878, it stopped taking regular burials around 1883 and was restored for tourists in the 1940s.

Boothill's most famous marker says Lester Moore took 'four slugs from a' what caliber?

The rhyme ends 'No Les, no more,' but there is no solid evidence any such man was ever buried there.

Which Tombstone venue did the NYT call in 1882 'the wildest, wickedest night spot' in the West?

It stayed open around the clock every day of the year until the silver bust closed it.

Which sport, with results reported back in Britain, was a prime attraction at the town's rowdiest theater?

Many of the miners were Cornish immigrants, alongside Irish and Germans.

Who founded The Tombstone Epitaph in 1880?

Associates teased that he would write an epitaph rather than a newspaper, so he kept the name.

The Epitaph's founder was the only US official ever to capture which Apache leader?

He ran the San Carlos reservation; the captive was later released and did not surrender for good until 1886.

Cochise County was carved out of which existing county in February 1881?

Tombstone became the seat, and the sheriff's job was worth over $40,000 a year in fees.

Tombstone lost the county seat in 1929 to which mining town?

Keeping the courthouse for those decades is a big part of why Tombstone never became a ghost town.

What nickname does Tombstone go by?

It was also the title of a 1942 film with Richard Dix as Wyatt Earp.

Tombstone's oldest festival, first held in 1929, is called what?

The name was coined by a disgruntled miner who wrote to the Nugget in 1881 that he'd come for El Dorado and ended up washing dishes.

What ended Tombstone's silver boom in the mid-1880s?

Huge Cornish engines were pumping 576,000 gallons a day before the 1886 fire wrecked them.

What did the coroner's inquest rule about the death of Johnny Ringo, found in 1882 with a bullet in his head?

Alternative theories persist, but he had frequently threatened to kill himself and his own revolver had one spent shell.

Which producer fired Kevin Jarre a month into filming and brought in George P. Cosmatos?

Michael Biehn, Jarre's close friend, considered quitting, and Cosmatos clashed with cinematographer William Fraker.

Which composer wrote the Cinergi logo fanfare that opens the Tombstone soundtrack album?

Bruce Broughton, who scored the film, conducted it with the Sinfonia of London.

According to the film's closing narration, how did Mattie die shortly after leaving Tombstone?

Wyatt and Josephine stayed together 47 years until his death in Los Angeles in 1929.

Which fellow Army scout warned Ed Schieffelin the only rock he would find was his own tombstone?

Schieffelin was prospecting from what became Fort Huachuca during the Apache Wars.

What does the official 1880 US census give as Tombstone's population, against boomtown claims of 10,000?

By 1890 the figure had risen only to 1,875.

Where did the devastating fire of May 25, 1882, start?

With too little water, buildings in its path were dynamited; over 100 businesses burned.

What Guinness-recognised record does a Lady Banksia planted in Tombstone in 1885 hold?

Homesick bride Mary Gee planted a cutting sent from Scotland; by 2014 it covered 8,000 square feet.

What were Tombstone miners paid per day in the early 1880s, working six 10-hour shifts a week?

About 6,000 men generated more than $168,000 a week in wages.