Doc Holliday

John Henry Holliday (August 14, 1851 Over the next few years, he reportedly had several confrontations. He saved Wyatt Earp's life during a saloon confrontation in Texas, and they became friends. In 1879, he joined Earp in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and then rode with him to Prescott, Arizona, and then Tombstone. While in Tombstone, local members of the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys repeatedly threatened him and spread rumors that he had robbed a stagecoach. On October 26, 1881, Holliday was deputized by Tombstone city marshal Virgil Earp. The lawmen attempted to disarm five members of the Cowboys near the O.K. Corral on the west side of town, which resulted in the famous shootout.

Following the Tombstone shootout, Virgil Earp was maimed by hidden assailants while Morgan Earp was killed. Unable to obtain justice in the courts, Wyatt Earp took matters into his own hands. As the recently appointed deputy U.S. marshal, Earp formally deputized Holliday, among others. As a federal posse, they pursued the outlaw Cowboys they believed were responsible. They found Frank Stilwell lying in wait as Virgil boarded a train for California, and Wyatt Earp killed him. The local sheriff issued a warrant for the arrest of five members of the federal posse, including Holliday. The federal posse killed three other Cowboys during late March and early April 1882, before they rode to the New Mexico Territory. Wyatt Earp learned of an extradition request for Holliday and arranged for Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin to deny Holliday's extradition. Holliday spent the few remaining years of his life in Colorado. He died of tuberculosis in his bed at the Hotel Glenwood at age 36.

Early life and education

left|thumb|Holliday's graduation photo in March 1872 from the Pennsylvania School of Dentistry

Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia, to Henry Burroughs Holliday and Alice Jane (McKey) Holliday. He was of English and Scottish ancestry. His father served in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War (as a major in the 27th Georgia Infantry). Holliday was baptized at the First Presbyterian Church of Griffin in 1852. In 1864, his family moved to Valdosta, Georgia,

According to Masterson's story, Holliday leveled a double-barreled shotgun at them, and when they exited the swimming hole, killed two of the youths. Some family members thought it best that Holliday leave the state, but other members of Holliday's family dispute those accounts.

Diagnosis of tuberculosis

Shortly after beginning his dental practice in 1873, Holliday was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He was given only a few months to live, but was told that a drier and warmer climate might slow the deterioration of his health. After Dr. Ford's return in September, Holliday left for Dallas, Texas, the "last big city before the uncivilized Western Frontier". Their office was located along Elm Street, between Market and Austin Streets. They dissolved the practice on March 2, 1874. Afterward, Holliday opened his own practice over the Dallas County Bank at the corner of Main and Lamar Streets.

With coughing spells at inopportune times from his tuberculosis, his dental practice slowly declined. Meanwhile, Holliday found he had some skill at gambling and he soon relied on it as his principal income source.

Holliday left when he learned about gold being discovered in Wyoming. On February 5, 1876, he arrived in Cheyenne. He found work as a dealer for Babb's partner, Thomas Miller, who owned the Bella Union Saloon. In the autumn of 1876, Miller moved the Bella Union to Deadwood, South Dakota (site of the gold rush in the Dakota Territory), and Holliday went with him. She is the only woman with whom Holliday is known to have had a relationship.

Befriends Wyatt Earp

thumb|right|[[Wyatt Earp ]]

In October 1877, outlaws led by "Dirty" Dave Rudabaugh robbed a Santa Fe Railroad construction camp in Kansas. Rudabaugh fled south into Texas. Wyatt Earp was given a temporary commission as deputy U.S. Marshal. Earp left Dodge City, following Rudabaugh over to Fort Griffin, a frontier town on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. Earp went to the Bee Hive Saloon, the largest in town and owned by John Shanssey, whom Earp had met in Wyoming when he was 21. Holliday told Earp that he thought Rudabaugh was headed back to Kansas. Earp sent a telegram to Ford County Sheriff Bat Masterson that Rudabaugh might be headed back in his direction.

thumb|right|Photo of the interior of the [[Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, taken between 1870 and 1885]]

After about a month in Fort Griffin, Earp returned to Fort Clark and in early 1878, he went to Dodge City, where he became the assistant city marshal, serving under Charlie Bassett. During the summer of 1878, Holliday and Horony also arrived in Dodge City, where they stayed at Deacon Cox's boarding house as Dr. and Mrs. John H. Holliday. Holliday sought to practice dentistry again, and ran an advertisement in the local paper:

According to accounts of the following event, reported by Glenn Boyer in the memoir of Josephine Earp, Wyatt’s widow,

I Married Wyatt Earp, Earp had run two cowboys, Tobe Driscall and Ed Morrison, out of Wichita earlier in 1878. During the summer, the two cowboys—accompanied by another two dozen men—rode into Dodge and shot up the town while galloping down Front Street. They entered the Long Branch Saloon, vandalized the room, and harassed the customers. Hearing the commotion, Earp burst through the front door and before he could react, a large number of cowboys were pointing their guns at him. In another version, there were only three to five cowboys. In both stories, Holliday was playing cards in the back of the room and upon seeing the commotion, drew his weapon and put his pistol at Morrison's head, forcing him and his men to disarm, rescuing Earp from a bad situation. No account of any such confrontation was reported by any of the Dodge City newspapers at the time.

Other known confrontations

Holliday was still practicing dentistry from his room in Fort Griffin, Texas, and in Dodge City, Kansas. In an 1878 Dodge newspaper advertisement, he promised money back for less than complete customer satisfaction. However, this was the last known time that he worked as a dentist. A few days before Christmas in 1878, Holliday and Horony arrived in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The 22 hot springs near the town were favored by individuals with tuberculosis for their acclaimed healing properties. Doc opened a dental practice and continued gambling as well, but the winter was unseasonably cold and business was slow. The New Mexico Territorial Legislature passed a bill banning gambling within the territory with surprising ease. On March 8, 1879, Holliday was indicted for "keeping [a] gaming table" and was fined $25. The ban on gambling combined with extremely low temperatures persuaded him to return to Dodge City for a few months. Royal Gorge was a bottleneck along the Arkansas, too narrow for both railroads to pass through, and with no other reasonable access to the South Park area. Doc remained there for about two and a half months. The federal intervention prompted the so-called "Treaty of Boston" to end the fighting. The D&RGW completed its line and leased it for use by the Santa Fe. Holliday took home a share of a $10,000 bribe paid by the D&RGW to Masterson to give up their possession of the Santa Fe roundhouse and returned to Las Vegas where Horony had remained.

Builds saloon in Las Vegas

The Santa Fe Railroad built tracks to Las Vegas, New Mexico, but bypassed the city by about a mile. A new town was built up near the tracks and prostitution and gambling flourished there. On July 19, 1879, Holliday and John Joshua Webb, former lawman and gunman, were seated in a saloon. Former U.S. Army scout Mike Gordon tried to persuade one of the saloon girls, a former girlfriend, to leave town with him. She refused and Gordon left the building "shouting obscenities", followed by Holliday. Gordon fired a shot at Holliday and subsequently "Gordon died" the day after. The next day, Holliday paid $372.50 to a carpenter to build a clapboard building to house the Doc Holliday's Saloon with John Webb as his partner. While in town, he was fined twice for keeping a gambling device, and again for carrying a deadly weapon.

Move to Arizona Territory

It appeared Holliday and Horony were settling into life in Las Vegas, New Mexico, when Wyatt Earp arrived on October 18, 1879. He told Holliday he was headed for the silver boom going on in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Holliday and Horony joined Wyatt and his wife Mattie, as well as Jim Earp and his wife and stepdaughter, and they left the next day for Prescott, Arizona Territory. They arrived within a few weeks and went straight to the home of Constable Virgil Earp and his wife Allie. Holliday and Horony checked into a hotel and when Wyatt, Virgil, and James Earp with their wives left for Tombstone, Holliday remained in Prescott, where he thought the gambling opportunities were better.

Paul fired his shotgun and emptied his revolver at the robbers, wounding a cowboy, later identified as Bill Leonard, in the groin. Philpot and passenger Peter Roerig, riding in the rear dickey seat, were both shot and killed.

Holliday was a good friend of Leonard, a former watchmaker from New York. Based on the affidavit sworn by Horony, Judge Wells Spicer issued an arrest warrant for Holliday.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

On October 26, 1881, Virgil Earp was both a deputy U.S. marshal and Tombstone's city police chief. He received reports that cowboys with whom they had had repeated confrontations were armed in violation of the city ordinance that required them to deposit their weapons at a saloon or stable soon after arriving in town. The cowboys had repeatedly threatened the Earps and Holliday. Fearing trouble, Virgil temporarily deputized Holliday and sought backup from his brothers Wyatt and Morgan. Virgil retrieved a short coach gun from the Wells Fargo office and the four men went to find the cowboys.

On Fremont Street, they ran into Cochise County Sheriff Behan, who told them or implied that he had disarmed the cowboys. To avoid alarming citizens and lessen tension when disarming the cowboys, Virgil gave the coach gun to Holliday so he could conceal it under his long coat. Virgil Earp took Holliday's walking stick. The lawmen found the cowboys in a narrow 15- to 20-ft-wide lot on Fremont Street, between Fly's boarding house and the Harwood house. Holliday was boarding at Fly's house and he possibly thought they were waiting there to kill him.

Different witnesses offered varying stories about Holliday's actions. Cowboys' witnesses testified that Holliday first pulled out a nickel-plated pistol he was known to carry, while others reported he first fired a longer, bronze-colored gun, possibly the coach gun. Holliday killed Tom McLaury with a shotgun blast in the side of his chest. Holliday was grazed by a bullet possibly fired by Frank McLaury who was on Fremont Street at the time. He supposedly challenged Holliday, yelling, "I've got you now!" Holliday is reported to have replied, "Blaze away! You're a daisy if you have." McLaury died of shots to his stomach and behind his ear. Holliday may have also wounded Billy Clanton.

One analysis of the fight gives credit to either Holliday or Morgan Earp for firing the fatal shot at McLaury on Fremont Street. Holliday may have been on McLaury's right and Morgan Earp on his left. McLaury was shot in the right side of the head, so Holliday is often given credit for shooting him. However, Wyatt Earp had shot McLaury in his torso earlier, a shot that alone could have killed him. McLaury would have turned away after having been hit and Wyatt could have placed a second shot in his head. A 30-day-long preliminary hearing found that the Earps and Holliday had acted within their duties as lawmen, although this did not pacify Ike Clanton.

Earp Vendetta Ride

The situation in Tombstone soon grew worse when Virgil Earp was ambushed and permanently injured in December 1881. Following that, Morgan Earp was ambushed and killed in March 1882. Several Cowboys were identified by witnesses as suspects in the shooting of Virgil Earp on December 27, 1881, and the assassination of Morgan Earp on March 19, 1882. Additional circumstantial evidence also pointed to their involvement. Wyatt Earp had been appointed deputy U.S. marshal after Virgil was maimed. He deputized Holliday, Warren Earp, Sherman McMaster, and "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson.

After Morgan's murder, Wyatt Earp and his deputies guarded Virgil Earp and Allie on their way to the train for Colton, California where his father lived, to recuperate from his serious shotgun wound. In Tucson, on March 20, 1882, the group spotted an armed Frank Stilwell and reportedly Ike Clanton hiding among the railroad cars, apparently lying in wait with the intent to kill Virgil. Frank Stilwell's body was found at dawn alongside the railroad tracks, riddled with buckshot and gunshot wounds. Wyatt said later in life that he killed Stilwell with a shotgun.

Tucson Justice of the Peace Charles Meyer issued arrest warrants for five of the Earp party, including Holliday. On March 21, they returned briefly to Tombstone, where they were joined by Texas Jack Vermillion and possibly others. On the morning of March 22, a portion of the Earp posse including Wyatt, Warren, Holliday, Sherman McMaster, and "Turkey Creek" Johnson rode about east to Pete Spence's ranch to a wood cutting camp located off the Chiricahua Road, below the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains.

Gunfight at Iron Springs

Two days later, Earp's posse traveled to Iron Springs, located in the Whetstone Mountains, where they expected to meet Charlie Smith, who was supposed to be bringing $1,000 cash from their supporters in Tombstone. With Wyatt and Holliday in the lead, the six lawmen surmounted a small rise overlooking the springs. They surprised eight cowboys camping near the springs. Wyatt Earp and Holliday left the only record of the fight. Curly Bill recognized Wyatt Earp in the lead and immediately grabbed his shotgun and fired at Earp. The other Cowboys also drew their weapons and began firing. Earp dismounted, shotgun in hand. "Texas Jack" Vermillion's horse was shot and fell on him, pinning his leg and wedging his rifle underneath. Lacking cover, Holliday, Johnson, and McMaster retreated. Curly Bill fell into the water by the edge of the spring and lay dead.

The Cowboys fired a number of shots at the Earp party, but the only casualty was Vermillion's horse, which was killed. Firing his pistol, Wyatt shot Johnny Barnes in the chest and Milt Hicks in the arm. Vermillion tried to retrieve his rifle wedged in the scabbard under his fallen horse, exposing himself to the Cowboys' gunfire. Doc Holliday helped him gain cover. Wyatt had trouble re-mounting his horse because his cartridge belt had slipped down around his legs. According to a letter written by former New Mexico Territory Governor Miguel Otero, Wyatt and Holliday were eating at Fat Charlie's The Retreat Restaurant in Albuquerque "when Holliday said something about Earp becoming 'a damn Jew-boy.' Earp became angry and left..."

Earp was staying with a prominent businessman, Henry N. Jaffa, who was also president of New Albuquerque's Board of Trade. Jaffa was Jewish, and based on Otero's letter, Earp had, while staying in Jaffa's home, honored Jewish tradition by touching the mezuzah upon entering his home. According to Otero's letter, Jaffa told him, "Earp's woman was a Jewess." Earp's anger at Holliday's ethnic slur may indicate that the relationship between Josephine Marcus and Wyatt Earp was more serious at the time than is commonly known. Holliday and Dan Tipton arrived in Pueblo, Colorado, in late April 1882.

Masterson took Holliday to Pueblo, where he was released on bond two weeks after his arrest. Holliday and Wyatt met in June 1882 in Gunnison.

Death of Johnny Ringo

On July 14, 1882, Holliday's long-time enemy Johnny Ringo was found dead in a low fork of a large tree in West Turkey Creek Valley near Chiricahua Peak, Arizona Territory. He had a bullet hole in his right temple and a revolver was found hanging from a finger of his hand. A coroner's inquest officially ruled his death a suicide; but according to the book I Married Wyatt Earp, which author and collector Glenn Boyer claimed to have assembled from manuscripts written by Earp's third wife, Josephine Marcus Earp, Earp and Holliday traveled to Arizona with some friends in early July, found Ringo in the valley, and killed him. Boyer refused to produce his source manuscripts, and reporters wrote that his explanations were conflicting and not credible. New York Times contributor Allen Barra wrote that the book "is now recognized by Earp researchers as a hoax". A variant of the story, popularized in the movie Tombstone, holds that Holliday stepped in for Earp in response to a gunfight challenge from Ringo, and shot him. The Pueblo Daily Chieftain reported that Holliday was seen in Salida, Colorado, on July 7, more than from where Ringo's body was found, and then in Leadville on July 18. Holliday biographer Karen Holliday Tanner noted that there was still an outstanding murder warrant in Arizona for Holliday's arrest, making it unlikely that he would choose to re-enter Arizona at that time.

thumb|upright|"Big Nose Kate" Horony

Hired by James Kyner

Toward the end of the 1880s, railroad contractor James H. Kyner hired Doc Holliday to motivate the proprietors of dozens of gambling and saloon tents to leave the forty-one-mile stretch of railroad line that he and another contractor were constructing between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. Drunkenness of the workers boozing it up at the saloon tents was causing trouble and there were too many for Kyner to want to deal with the problem himself.

Kyner had heard that a gunman named Doc Holliday had been hired before by a group of men who wanted to drive off others who had staked claims to the same nearby coal deposit that they were claiming, which gave him the idea of hiring Holliday to make his troublemakers leave. Kyner was staying at the Glenwood Hotel and when Holliday was pointed out to him one day, he initiated a discussion about it. Without hesitation, Holliday told Kyner he could do it for $250.

Holliday spent his remaining days in Colorado. After a stay in Leadville, he suffered from the high altitude. He increasingly depended on alcohol and laudanum to ease the symptoms of tuberculosis, and his health and his skills as a gambler began to deteriorate. He hoped to take advantage of the reputed curative power of the waters, but the sulfurous fumes from the spring might have done his lungs more harm than good. He died from tuberculosis/consumption.

Memorial service

The Glenwood Springs Ute Chief of November 12, 1887, wrote in its obituary that Holliday had been baptized in the Catholic Church. This was based on correspondence written between Holliday and his cousin, Sister Mary Melanie, a Catholic nun. No baptismal record has been found in either St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Glenwood Springs or at the Annunciation Catholic Church in nearby Leadville. speculate that it would have been impossible to transport him to the cemetery, which was only accessible by a difficult mountain road, or to dig a grave because the ground was frozen. Author Gary Roberts located evidence that other bodies were transported to the Linwood Cemetery at the same time of the month that year. Contemporary newspaper reports explicitly state that Holliday was buried in the Linwood Cemetery, but the exact location of his grave is uncertain.

Public reputation

Holliday maintained a fierce persona, as was sometimes needed for a gambler to earn respect. He had a contemporary reputation as a skilled gunfighter which modern historians generally regard as accurate.

Character

Throughout his lifetime, Holliday was known by many of his peers as a tempered, calm Southern gentleman. In an 1896 article, Wyatt Earp said: "I found him a loyal friend and good company. He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption and at the same time the most skillful gambler and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew."

In a newspaper interview, Holliday was once asked if his conscience ever troubled him. He is reported to have said, "I coughed that up with my lungs, years ago."

Bat Masterson had several contacts with Holliday over his lifetime and the two men developed a dislike for each other. They tolerated each other only as friends of Wyatt Earp. Masterson wrote in an article about Holliday,

Arrests and convictions

Biographer Karen Holliday Tanner found that Holliday had been arrested 17 times before his 1881 shootout in Tombstone. Only one arrest was for murder, which occurred in an 1879 shootout with Mike Gordon in New Mexico, for which he was acquitted. In the preliminary hearing following the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Judge Wells Spicer exonerated Holliday's actions as those of a duly appointed lawman. In Denver, the Arizona warrant against Holliday for Frank Stilwell's murder went unserved when the governor was persuaded by Trinidad Chief of Police Bat Masterson to release Holliday to his custody for bunco charges.

Among his other arrests, Holliday pleaded guilty to two gambling charges, one charge of carrying a deadly weapon in the city (in connection with the argument with Ringo), and one misdemeanor assault and battery charge (for his shooting of Joyce and Parker). The others were all dismissed or returned as "not guilty." The story of Holliday killing Bailey first appeared nine years after Holliday's death in an 1896 interview with Wyatt Earp that was published in the San Francisco Enquirer.

According to Earp, Holliday was playing poker with a well-liked local man named Ed Bailey. Holliday caught Bailey "monkeying with the dead wood" or the discard pile, which was against the rules. According to Earp, Holliday reminded Bailey to "play poker", which was a polite way to caution him to stop cheating. When Bailey made the same move again, Holliday took the pot without showing his hand, which was his right under the rules. Bailey immediately went for his pistol, but Holliday whipped out a knife from his breast pocket and "caught Bailey just below the brisket" or upper chest. Bailey died and Holliday, new to town, was detained in his room at the Planter's Hotel.

Image:DocHollidayCloseUp.jpg|Cropped from a larger version, Holliday's graduation photo from the Pennsylvania School of Dental Surgery in March 1872, age 20, known provenance and authenticated as Holliday

Image:Doc Holliday in Prescott AZ (closeup).jpg|Cropped from a larger version, Holliday in Prescott, Arizona, in 1879, age 27, known provenance and authenticated as Holliday

Image:DocHolliday.jpg|Uncreased print of supposed 1882 Tombstone photo of Holliday, left side is upturned, detachable shirt collar toward camera, no cowlick, unknown provenance

Image:HollidayLcollar.jpg|Creased and darker version of photo at left, unknown provenance

Image:Doc Holliday.jpg|Person most often reported to be Holliday with a cowlick and folded-down collar, heavily retouched, oval, inscribed portrait, unknown provenance

Image:HollidayandBowler.jpg|Person with a bowler hat and open vest and coat, unknown provenance

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Legacy

thumb|left|Life-sized statues of lawmen [[Wyatt Earp and deputy Doc Holliday at the Historic Railroad Depot]]

Doc Holliday is one of the most recognizable figures in the American Old West, but he is most remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his role in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Holliday's friendship with the lawman has been a staple of popular sidekicks in American Western culture, and Holliday himself became a stereotypical image of a deputy and a loyal companion in modern times. He is typically portrayed in films as being loyal to his friend Wyatt, with whom he sticks during the duo's greatest conflicts, such as the gunfight at the OK Corral and Earp's vendetta, even with the ensuing violence and hardships that they both endured. Together with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday has become a modern symbol of loyalty, brotherhood and friendship.

The home of Doc Holliday’s uncle is marked with a historical marker located in Fayetteville, Georgia.

A life-sized statue of Holliday and Earp by sculptor Dan Bates was dedicated by the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum at the restored Historic Railroad Depot in Tucson, Arizona, on March 20, 2005, the 122nd anniversary of the killing of Frank Stilwell by Wyatt Earp. The statue stands at the approximate site of the shooting on the train platform.

"Doc Holliday Days" are held yearly in Holliday's birthplace of Griffin, Georgia. Valdosta, Georgia, held a Doc Holliday look-alike contest in January 2010, to coincide with its sesquicentennial celebration.

Tombstone, Arizona, also holds an annual Doc Holli-Days, which started in 2017 and celebrates the gunfighter-dentist on the 2nd weekend of August each year. Events include gunfights, a parade, and a Doc Holliday look-alike contest. Val Kilmer, who played Doc in 1993's Tombstone, was the grand marshal in 2017 and Dennis Quaid, who played Doc in 1994's Wyatt Earp, was the grand marshal in 2018.

In popular culture

Holliday was nationally known during his life as a gambler and gunman. The shootout at the O.K. Corral is one of the most famous frontier stories in the American West and numerous Western TV shows and movies have been made about it. Holliday is usually a prominent part of the story.

Documentary

In Search of Doc Holliday (2016)

In film and television

Actors who have portrayed Holliday include:

Harvey Clark in Law for Tombstone (1937)
Cesar Romero in Frontier Marshal (1939)
Kent Taylor in Tombstone, the Town Too Tough to Die (1942)
Walter Huston in The Outlaw (1943)
Victor Mature in My Darling Clementine directed by John Ford, with Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp (1946)
Harry Bartell in the 13th episode of the CBS radio program Gunsmoke (July 19, 1952)
Kim Spalding in the syndicated television series Stories of the Century (1954)
James Griffith in Masterson of Kansas (1954)
Barry Atwater in "The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", an episode of the CBS TV series You Are There, November 6, 1955
Kirk Douglas in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) with Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp
Douglas Fowley in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp with Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp (1955–1961)
Myron Healey in ten episodes of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
Adam West in separate 1959 episodes of Lawman, Sugarfoot (episode: "Trial of the Canary Kid"), and Colt .45
Gerald Mohr and Peter Breck each played Holliday in the ABC/WB series Maverick (1957–62) starring James Garner and Jack Kelly
Christopher Dark in an episode of the NBC series Bonanza (1963)
Martin Landau in the episode "Doc Holliday" of the TV series Tales of Wells Fargo (1959)
Robert Lansing in The Tall Man episode "Rovin' Gambler" (1961)
Anthony Jacobs in the Doctor Who episode "The Gunfighters" (1966)
Warren Stevens in the episode "Doc Holliday's Gold Bars" of the syndicated Western series, Death Valley Days (1966)
Jason Robards in Hour of the Gun, James Garner played Wyatt Earp (1967)
Jack Kelly in The High Chaparral (1967), episode "The Doctor from Dodge"
Sam Gilman in the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun" (1968)
Stacy Keach in Doc (1971)
Bill Fletcher in two episodes of the TV series Alias Smith and Jones: "Which Way to the OK Corral?" (1971) and "The Ten Days That Shook Kid Curry" (1972)
John McLiam in Bret Maverick (1981)
Jeffrey DeMunn in I Married Wyatt Earp (1983)
Willie Nelson in Stagecoach (1986)
Val Kilmer in Tombstone (1993)
Dennis Quaid in Wyatt Earp (1994)
Randy Quaid in Purgatory (1999)
Wilson Bethel in Wyatt Earp's Revenge (2012)
Ryan Kennedy in Hannah's Law (2012)
William McNamara in Doc Holliday's Revenge (2014)
Shane O'Loughlin in Legends and Lies: The Real West on the Fox News Channel series that explores famous figures from the American West
Tim Rozon in Wynonna Earp (2016–2021)
Edgar Fox in The American West (2016)
Eric Schumacher in Tombstone Rashomon (2017)
Jeremy Renner in Untitled Doc Holliday Biopic (TBA) based on Mary Doria Russell's books

=== In fiction ===

Epitaph: a Novel of the O.K. Corral by Mary Doria Russell, 2015
A Wicked Little Town: Book One of The Doc Holliday Series by Elena Sandidge, 2013
Southern Son: The Saga of Doc Holliday by Victoria Wilcox, 2013
Holliday, Nate Bowden and Doug Dabbs, 2012
Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell, 2011
Merkabah Rider: The Mensch With No Name by Edward M. Erdelac, a novel in the Weird West genre, 2010,
The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick, 2010,
Territory by Emma Bull, 2007
O.K. Corral, a Lucky Luke comic by artist Morris & writers Eric Adam and Xavier Fauche 1997
The Last Ride of German Freddie by Walter Jon Williams, a novella in Worlds that Weren't, 2005,
The Langoliers by Stephen King, a novella in Four Past Midnight, 1990,
Bucking the Tiger: A Novel by Bruce Olds, 2002
The Fourth Horseman by Randy Lee Eickhoff, 1998
Deadlands a tabletop role-playing game produced by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in Law Dogs, 1996,
Wild Times by Brian Garfield, 1978
The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry, 2014
At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost, 2008

In song

"Linwood", written and performed by Jon Chandler on The Grand Dame of the Rockies – Songs of the Hotel Colorado and the Roaring Fork Valley; winner of the 2009 Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Song.
Danish metal band Volbeat performs the song "Doc Holliday" on their album Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies.
Swedish power metal band Civil War performs the song "Tombstone" about the gunfight at OK Corral on their album The Last Full Measure.
Country music legend Johnny Cash references Doc Holliday on his album Sings the Ballads of the True West with the song Narration #1 directly referencing him and the following song The Ballad of Boot Hill referencing some of the events that took place in Tombstone, Arizona.

Video games

In Deadlock, playable character Holliday is the fictional granddaughter of Doc Holliday, and uses his gun in game.