- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWyatt Berry Stapp Earp
- Height1.83 m
- Wyatt Earp was a lawman, gambler, businessman, saloon owner and gunfighter of great repute in the American West. He had been a police officer in Wichita, KS, and later in Dodge City, KS, during the mid-1870s, after which he became a shotgun rider with Wells Fargo. In Tombstone, AZ, in the wake of a stagecoach robbery, Earp (who had been running for sheriff) became involved in the notorious gunfight at the OK Corral of October 26, 1881, which resulted in the death of suspects Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton and the wounding of Earp's brothers Morgan and Virgil and his friend "Doc" Holliday. The gunfight only caused more trouble, setting into motion a series of events that included the assassination of town marshal Morgan Earp and murder charges being filed against Wyatt and others for the shooting deaths of two suspects in that crime. Wyatt left for Colorado and points west, eventually retiring to San Francisco and later Los Angeles, CA, where he occasionally worked as a consultant on various early silent-era westerns (in the days before accurate credits were maintained, so it's not known exactly what films he worked on). He was close friends with another western icon, William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson, and later with cowboy actors William S. Hart and Tom Mix and, according to some accounts, he met and befriended a young John Wayne on the set of a silent western on which Wayne was an unbilled extra.
Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles on January 13, 1929, at age 80. Hart and Mix were pallbearers at his funeral.- IMDb mini biography by: Scott Sanchez
- SpousesJosephine Sarah Marcus(1888 - January 13, 1929) (his death)Celia Mattie Blaylock(1878 - 1882) (separated)Urilla Sutherland(January 10, 1870 - 1871) (her death)
- RelativesVirgil Earp(Sibling)Morgan Earp(Sibling)
- After the death of his elder brother Virgil Earp on October 19, 1905, he was the last surviving participant of the Gunfight of the O.K. Corral, which took place in Tombstone, Arizona at 3 p.m. on October 26, 1881.
- In 1910, when he was 62, the Los Angeles Police Department hired Wyatt and former Los Angeles detective Arthur Moore King at $10.00 per day to carry out various tasks "outside the law" such as retrieving criminals from Mexico, which he did very capably. This led to Wyatt's final armed confrontation.
- Inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame in 2016, in the category Historical Figure.
- Became acquainted with John Wayne, during the actor's early years in Hollywood.
- Earp was involved in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. While Wyatt is often depicted as the key figure in the shootout, his brother Virgil was both Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone City Marshal that day and had considerably more experience in law enforcement as a sheriff, constable, and marshal than did Wyatt. Virgil made the decision to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in town and to disarm the Cowboys. Wyatt was only a temporary assistant marshal to his brother.
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