Actor, movie star, humanitarian and world-class cut-up, Hugh O'Brian died this morning at age 91. O'Brian, who had several health issues, died with his wife, Virginia, nearby at their Beverly Hills home, his publicist Harlan Boll says.
Ironically, the show he was most famous for, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, premiered on ABC 61 years ago, on this date, September 6.
The show was billed as “TV’s first adult Western." Asked to define "adult Western," O'Brian once quipped, "The

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows