According to the film website IMDb, Wyatt Earp has been portrayed at least 67 times in Westerns, TV shows, docudramas and more. Bert Lindley was the first Earp, starring in the 1923 silent flick “Wild Bill Hickok,” which came out while the real guy was still alive.
One of the most interesting casting decisions was in “Winchester ’73,” where character actor Will Geer played Earp as a paunchy, long

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus