One of those indubitably amazing movies is Tombstone. It depicts the actual events leading up to the shootout at the O.K. Corral and stars Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, his brothers Morgan (Bill Paxton) and Virgil (Sam Elliott), as well as Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), Wyatt’s closest friend. That movie’s writing is just really excellent. Many people are compelled to watch this movie whenever it is on and then reenact the dialogue with the characters.
One cool tidbit of trivia from the film was recently revealed in an old MovieWeb interview with actor Michael Biehn, who played Johnny Ringo in the pic. He explained that every mustache on the set of the film was actually grown by the actors who wore them, at the request of the film’s screenwriter and original director, Kevin Jarre, except for one:
“Everyone just grew a mustache. When it comes down to it, this goes back to Kevin Jarre, the film’s original director. He was very specific about how he wanted the mustaches. He wanted them to curl up on the end. Which means, if you grow a mustache, and it grows long enough, you have to use wax on the end of it. Everyone was pretty proud that they grew their own mustache.”
Jon Tenney, who played the local sheriff, Johnny Behan in the film, was the only guy who needed a fake, but it wasn’t really his fault. Biehn went on:
“There was one guy, Jon Tenney. He didn’t get to grow his own mustache because he had a job right before that. They had to put a fake mustache on him. I think he always felt a little bit like the small dog of the group. Because it wasn’t his real mustache. He had to take his mustache off every day. It wasn’t like a mustache styling competition. I don’t think anyone paid much attention to his mustache. Unless Kevin Jarre said, ‘Someone work on Michael Biehn’s mustache!'”
Tombstone is a classic, and it’s still fun to hear behind-the-scenes info on it from the people who made it happen. The film is currently streaming on Paramount+, just in case it’s time for a rewatch.