Did Wyatt Earp appear in a film...

[Blackjack]

I found some interesting trivia that I've been trying to confirm. Apparently, in the 1916 film "The Half Breed" starring Douglas Fairbanks the director of the film Allen Dwan stated once that Wyatt Earp (THE Wyatt Earp) was most definitely filmed as an extra in a bar scene where he was supposed to be standing with a group of men. Has anyone ever seen this film, or heard if this is true????

 

[RudyN]

That would be interesting to know. I do remember his brother Virgil Earp appearing in a Quiz show in, I beleive, the 1950s.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

According to this,..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp
he settled in Hollywood CA. sometime before then, so it's possible.

 

[dhermann1]

That would be interesting to know. I do remember his brother Virgil Earp appearing in a Quiz show in, I beleive, the 1950s.

That would gave been a pretty neat trick, considering that Virgil died in 1905.
I wouldn't be surprised if Wyatt was in a film. He lived from 1848 till 1929. He spent a lot of time in Hollywood in the silent days, trying to get somebody to film his life story. Sort of odd to think of the Old West heroes lasting into "modern" times, but Bat Masterson lived till 1926, and the back of his head was filmed as he counted the knockdowns in an early Jack Johnson fight, as I recall.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0006753/maindetails#comment

No mention of him at Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com)

-dixon cannon

 

[Blackjack]

I know he is not credited in the film but none the less the director said he was in it. He did hang in Hollywood in his later years, Tom Mix and William S. Hart were even pallbearers at his funeral.

 

[Flitcraft]

Always heard this rumor, but have never been able to confirm it. If I ever find any factual proof,I'll post, but...

 

[dr greg]

extra extra

the true story can be found here!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096193/

 

[Feraud]

the true story can be found here!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096193/

That movie sounds just bad enough to be good!

 

[dr greg]

tripe

I dimly remember it as pretty silly, but saved in some measure by the charm of rockfish

 

[Brinybay]

The movie doesn't appear to have survived, or at least is not available anywhere that I can find.

Somewhere I remember reading Wyatt was a tall guy, so if the movie was available, you could look for a tall elderly guy among the extras.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Doesn't sound likely - listing Earp as a cast member, even in a walk-on, would have made the film a huge hit. But they didn't move to Hollywood until the last few years of his life, and so 1915-1916 when the movie was in production makes it seem unlikely. What's the source of Dwan's comment that you're relying on?

 

[Blackjack]

No, Earp owned a home in LA by 1906. He had interests in Alaska and traveled back and forth but was definitely a resident by then. It was around 1925 when Tom Mix tried unsuccessfully to get any movie producer interested in doing a movie about him. You have to remember he wasn't big news until the 30's when Stuart lake wrote Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshall. There were no dime novels about Wyatt Earp, and the OK Corral fight was far from public knowledge at this point.
John Wayne met Earp in his very early days of moving props around on sets and I remember seeing Republican Candidate Barry Goldwater on the Tonight Show years ago saying he knew him as a child .