George P. Cosmatos’ 1993 Western “Tombstone” begins in the year 1879 and ends in 1881 at the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Said gunfight was a notably bloody shootout between the local law enforcers of Tombstone, Arizona and a local gang of criminals nicknamed the Cowboys. The law was represented by the Earp brothers Wyatt, Virgil, and James, and they have gone down as important figures in the history of the American West.
In the movie, Wyatt Earp is played by Kurt Russell, and the old lawman is depicted as a formerly violent man trying to eschew his instincts to shoot others. Wyatt hopes to be peaceful and gentle and live quietly with his common-law wife Sadie (Dana Delaney). Spoiler alert: he’s not successful. Indeed, the violence is so brazenly inevitable in Westerns, one wonders why anyone even entertains the thought of giving peace a chance.
The potential gunshot victims in “Tombstone” are played by a litany of recognizable Hollywood actors, including Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Billy Zane, Michael Rooker, Billy Bob Thornton, Thomas Hayden Church, and Charlton Heston (with Robert Mitchum narrating). The film wasn’t a huge hit in 1993, but has since garnered a passionate following of devoted fans.
Almost all of the above actors sported glorious late 19th-century mustaches, the likes of which can no longer be seen (outside of certain hipster areas of Brooklyn). Russell’s mustache swooped down past his lip, almost drooping as far as his chin. In an episode of “Explain This” for Esquire, Russell talked about the mustache and how he almost grew it even longer to match photographs of the real-life Wyatt Earp. He revealed, though, that his director wanted something a little more up-to-date.
Russell had the right mustache but the wrong time period
It seems that Russell’s photographic model of Earp was, at least according to Cosmatos, a little dated. Russell had a photo of Wyatt Earp’s facial hair from earlier in his life, whereasa Cosmatos was keen on making Russell look as historically accurate as possible, wanting him to look the way he did in 1879 specifically. As Russell recalled:
“It’s funny, I let my mustache grow to try to find what I wanted to do with Wyatt Earp. There was a picture that I had of him where I had the exact same mustache, but [Cosmatos], he was being incredibly accurate to certain things. He said, ‘Well, that’s not the way he wore his mustache at that time.’ And I’m actually glad that I went with the mustache that he wanted me to go with, but the other mustache … God, I looked just like him. I don’t know whether it was the right or wrong thing to do in that regard.”
It seems that the real-life Earp trimmed his bristles back in time for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Most of the pictures of Earp one can find online are from when he required a lot more mustache wax, so Russell may not look historically accurate to the untrained eye. Luckily for everyone involved, it was.
It’s also possible that Cosmatos wanted Russell to sport shorter facial hair for practical reasons: it would have covered more of the lead actor’s face (perhaps afflicting his vanity) and required a lot more care and time from the makeup department. A shorter ‘stache would allow Russell to get to the set 30 minutes earlier.
For the 2015 Western “The Hateful Eight,” however, Russell sported a massive mustache and sideburns. So, eventually, he was okay looking bushy.