Wyatt Earp

“The real lawman of Tombstone, and the real mustache behind the movies.”

98STACH SCORE

✂ Horseshoe Historical Figure Era: 1880s Born 1848 🏆 HOF Inductee

Is this a Legendary Stach?

Stach Stats

Stash Power97

Ruggedness100

Curl Factor15

Legend Status99

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

Style: Horseshoe
Peak Era: 1880s
Born: 1848
Hall of Fame: Inducted 2024
Fan Votes: 0 legendary · 0 meh

The Story

About Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (1848–1929) was born in Monmouth, Illinois, and lived a restless frontier life as a buffalo hunter, teamster, saloon keeper, gambler, and lawman. He served as a police officer in Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s before moving with his brothers to the silver boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

On October 26, 1881, Wyatt, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday faced off against the Clanton and McLaury brothers in the thirty-second gunfight near the O.K. Corral. After Morgan was murdered in 1882, Wyatt led a vendetta ride against the men he held responsible, then left Arizona for good.

He spent his later decades in mining camps, boomtowns, and finally Los Angeles, where he befriended early Hollywood figures. He died in 1929; the 1931 biography "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal" turned him into a legend, inspiring generations of films.

The Verdict

Why the Stach Became Iconic

The real Earp wore a long, full, drooping mustache that swept down past the corners of his mouth — a look his brothers shared and that became the standard-issue frontier lawman mustache. Every screen Earp, from Henry Fonda to Kurt Russell to Kevin Costner, has had to grow one.

It is the mustache that launched a thousand Westerns.

On the Record

Notable Moments

Assistant marshal, Dodge City, Kansas (1870s)
Gunfight near the O.K. Corral, Tombstone (October 26, 1881)
The Earp Vendetta Ride (1882)
Referee, Fitzsimmons–Sharkey heavyweight bout, San Francisco (1896)
Subject of "Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal" by Stuart Lake (1931)

Fun Facts

The famous gunfight actually took place in a vacant lot on Fremont Street, not inside the O.K. Corral.
He refereed a heavyweight title fight in 1896 and was accused of fixing it.
He was never wounded in a gunfight.
A young John Wayne reportedly met him on Hollywood sets in the 1920s.