Doc Holliday

“Dentist, gambler, gunfighter. Huckleberry to a generation.”

93STACH SCORE

✂ Horseshoe Historical Figure Era: 1880s Born 1851

Is this a Legendary Stach?

Stach Stats

Stash Power85

Ruggedness90

Curl Factor15

Legend Status96

Stats are for entertainment purposes. The mustache committee's decisions are final and occasionally arbitrary.

Style: Horseshoe
Peak Era: 1880s
Born: 1851
Fan Votes: 0 legendary · 0 meh

The Story

About Doc Holliday

John Henry "Doc" Holliday (1851–1887) was born in Griffin, Georgia, and earned a degree in dental surgery in Philadelphia in 1872. Diagnosed with tuberculosis soon after, he moved west for the drier climate and drifted from dentistry into professional gambling across Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Arizona.

He became a close friend of Wyatt Earp in Dodge City and stood with the Earps at the O.K. Corral gunfight in Tombstone in 1881, and rode with Wyatt on the vendetta that followed. Though his reputation as a deadly gunman was inflated by later writers, his loyalty to Earp was real.

He died of tuberculosis in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, in 1887 at age 36. His last words are traditionally reported as a wry comment on dying in bed rather than with his boots on.

The Verdict

Why the Stach Became Iconic

The one authenticated photograph of Holliday, from his dental school graduation, shows a young man with a neat, light mustache. The popular image — the thin, pale, sardonic gambler with a drooping mustache and a cough — was cemented by Val Kilmer in "Tombstone" (1993), and the real man\'s mustache has been reinterpreted in every film since.

On the Record

Notable Moments

Graduated Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery (1872)
Gunfight near the O.K. Corral, Tombstone (1881)
The Earp Vendetta Ride (1882)
Died Glenwood Springs, Colorado (1887)

Fun Facts

He was a trained dentist — the nickname was literal.
His cousin Martha Anne "Mattie" Holliday became a nun, and their correspondence was said to have inspired a character in "Gone with the Wind."
He was portrayed by Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, Val Kilmer, and Dennis Quaid, among others.