John Wayne and Wyatt Earp...

While working as a prop boy, John Wayne met Wyatt Earp. He later credited his walk, talk, and persona to his acquaintance with Earp. The famed lawman of the American West spent the final years of his life in California, where he worked as a consultant on some silent cowboy movies. During this time, Earp became good friends with many famous actors of the early Western movies, including William S. Hart and Tom Mix. Tom Mix became very close friends with Earp and even tried to convince some of the most influential people in Hollywood to make a film about Earp’s legendary gunfight, but his efforts were fruitless. In fact, the two of them were so close that Mix served as a pallbearer at Earp’s funeral.

One of the greatest directors in film history, John Ford, also met Earp, who often visited Ford’s film sets. Earp described the gunfight at the O.K. Corral to him and even drew it out on paper. Ford later used the sketch to film the fight in My Darling Clementine. In California, Wyatt Earp also befriended a young actor named Marion Morrison, who would later change his name to John Wayne and become an American acting icon. Director John Ford hired John Wayne as a prop boy and extra, giving him the opportunity to meet Wyatt Earp. Earp made an impact on the young actor, who later credited his walk, talk, and persona to his acquaintance with Wyatt Earp. On one occasion, he reportedly said, “Earp was the man who had actually done the things in his life that I was trying to do in a movie. I imitated his walk; I imitated his talk.”

Eventually, John Wayne became one of the most popular film actors of the 20th century, and with the help of the famed lawman Wyatt Earp, he created the model for the iconic hero of the American West.