Fans of the classic western Tombstone mourned the loss of Val Kilmer’s death on April 1 from pneumonia after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis. His portrayal of Doc Holliday remains iconic in this 1993 western film which tells a fictional version of the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in the tiny Arizona town. Kurt Russell shines as Wyatt Earp, and the star-studded cast includes Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Dana Delany, Billy Bob Thornton, and Robert Mitchum as narrator.

The action is excellent, and Tombstone went on to be a hit, regularly found on cable television. Kilmer played a huge part as Doc Holliday and stole the show for many viewers with his portrayal of the professional gambler and gunslinger.

Doc Holliday was the Real Deal

While Tombstone was a fictional take on the classic tale of the Wild West, Doc Holliday was a real-life professional poker player and gambler long before the bright lights of Las Vegas and sanitized poker tournaments. Players can almost always expect a fair game, but that was definitely not the case in the latter part of the 19th century, as miners, ranchers, and farmers headed west to seek their fortunes.

Who was Doc Holliday, and what was life like as a gambler in the Old West? Life at the tables at the time could be a dangerous business, and like a Boy Scout, Holliday was always prepared.

“Because playing cards professionally was a hazardous business, he also trained himself as a gunfighter,” James McManus notes of Holliday in the Cowboys Full: The History of Poker. “His weapons of choice were a 10-gauge double-barrel sawed-off shotgun, a wood-handled Colt .45, and, when he ran out of bullets, a long, heavy double-edged knife he affectionately called the ‘Hell Bitch.'”

Gambling in the Old West

Born John Henry Holliday in 1851 in Griffin, Georgia, this gambler and gunfighter was one of the most colorful characters in the Old West. The “Doc” nickname was legitimate – Holliday earned a degree in dentistry from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872 at the age of 20 and went on to practice dentistry in Atlanta, Georgia, before later relocating his practice to Dallas, Texas.

A tuberculosis diagnosis at an early age eventually led to a change in career while in the Lone Star State. His coughing fits increased, which was detrimental to business, and turned off customers. As his patient load declined, Holliday sought an alternative means of making a living. A sharp mind and some skill at the card table helped.

“The same dexterity of hands and mind that had made him a good dentist was also useful for card games,” notes Oklahoma dentist Karl R. Jobs, who writes about the history of dentistry. “As a child, he’d learned to gamble from Sophie Walton, a servant in his uncle’s household. He took these skills and became one of the Old West’s most famous gamblers, not to mention a gunslinger as well. Though in the ensuing years he would have some occasions to put his dental training to good use, he primarily made his way playing cards.”

Life Out West

Holliday went on to spend much of his life moving from town to town in the Southwest, gambling to earn a living. No doubt, players like Holliday had to deal with some shady opponents at the table on occasion. Cheating was a regular part of doing business for many, and gamblers playing it straight had to keep an eye out. And cheats and thieves were always looking to bag the loot, whether they won or lost.

Unlike what may have been depicted at times in Tombstone, Holliday isn’t remembered as a cheat or a thief but was undoubtedly a crack shot.

At a time when decks of cards were difficult to come by, there were numerous ways a savvy and unscrupulous player could take advantage of dim saloon lighting and old cards to steer more pots his way. 

“Needle tips were delicately soldered to rings, then used to punch holes in well-camouflaged spots in the aces,” McManus notes. “The backs of certain cards were deftly marked or stained in precise locations – difficult enough to begin with, but especially so when the marks had to be accurately applied, read, and remembered amid the kaleidoscope of badly lit, fast-moving action.”

Holliday was always ready for some gunplay if an opponent was looking to take advantage, and pistols at the table were par for the course on the wild frontier.

Packing a Pistol

Like other heroes of the old West, such as Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson, and others, Holliday has been featured in numerous books, films, and other popular media since his death in 1887 at the age of 36. He has been remembered as a sharpshooter responsible for the deaths of up to a dozen men. However, most modern researchers narrow this down to just three or even fewer.

While Holliday was arrested 17 times during his lifetime, only one was for murder. That came after the gunslinger was involved in a shootout in New Mexico in 1879, for which he was acquitted. Fitting for a man who made his living at the poker felt, Holliday was also arrested twice for illegal gambling.

Despite the rough and rowdy reputation, many remembered Holliday as a calm man who gave the persona of a southern gentleman.

“I found him a loyal friend and good company,” Earp noted of his friend. “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.”

Hollywood Doc Holliday

Kilmer certainly brought that out on screen. He dresses sharply, all the while dealing with the tuberculosis that ravaged his body. Tombstone includes numerous poker scenes featuring the dentist/sharpshooter at the table.

This aligns with Holliday’s real-life experiences, and most saloons on the frontier featured poker games, as well as roulette and craps tables, as seen in the HBO series Deadwood. One poker scene stands out, showcasing Holliday’s wit, charm, and penchant for violence when provoked, even if it is probably fictional.

The table is shown with plenty of chips and cash in the center. After calling a sizable bet from an opponent, Holliday shows four queens and is primed to collect his cash. The loser of this hand doesn’t take the result well and orders Holliday to get out of the establishment.

Holliday responds: “Does this mean we’re not friends anymore?”

The other card player makes a move for his pistol, but Holliday quickly has his own Colt .45s trained on his opponent. After Holliday places his sidearms on the table, the angry man then moves in for another attack but is met with the”Hell Bitch” slicing through his stomach.

Holliday and his girl collect the winnings and head out the door. While this may not have actually happened, Holliday’slife is consistent with plenty of time at the tables in Old West saloons. That includes some quick getaways with his winnings at times. Tombstone was not a place to turn your back on enemies, as noted in the book Old West The Gamblers:

The Legend Lives on

“Tombstone’s legend began in 1877 when a prospector named Ed Schieffelinfound silver on the spot where a friend had told him, ‘Instead of a mine, you’ll find a tombstone.’ Then came the deluge of miners, claim jumpers, con artists, painted women, gunmen, and gamblers. Law and order, of sorts, followed in the person of the Earp clan and Doc Holliday. But these ‘lawmen’ were a wild bunch; when their sulfurous careers blew up at the famous battle at the O.K. Corral, they were chased out of town by a sheriff’s posse. No wonder the entire country, from the White House down, saw Tombstone as a hellhole where at least one murder was committed every day.”

Holliday died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on November 8, 1887, from complications of tuberculosis. Those looking to relive some of Holliday’s adventures may want to head to Tombstone each August.

The town’s annual Doc Holli-days event celebrates the life of the gunfighter and gambler, complete with concerts, a parade, a look-alike contest, and plenty of fun. Kilmer even served as the event’s grand marshal in 2017. Hopefully, real-life shootouts won’t be part of the experience.