In 1993, “Tombstone” assembled a cast for the ages to tell the story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The throwback Western, led by Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer — in what is perhaps Kilmer’s best performance — showcases a lot of tough guys in cowboy hats as it dramatizes real events that took place before and after the gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona, circa 1881. Special effects make the gunfight seem real, but thirty years later, in the age of “Ted Lasso,” perhaps the most impressive effect on display in “Tombstone” is the mustaches, not the machismo.
As Earp, his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliot) and Morgan (Bill Paxton), and Holliday come walking over the hill on their way to the Corral, they all sport period-appropriate mustaches. So, too, do their enemies, the red-sashed Cowboys, led by “Curly Bill” Brocius (Powers Boothe) and Holliday’s rival, Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn). As it turns out, though, the only special effect involved in most of the actors’ mustaches was wax. All of them — except for one — grew out a real mustache and waxed it to achieve the proper look.
In an interview with MovieWeb ahead of the Blu-ray release of “Tombstone” in 2010, Biehn revealed that this was done at the behest of the film’s screenwriter and original director, Kevin Jarre (“Glory”):
“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.”
One actor went against the proud mustache way
While accounts differ about the true extent of the control Kurt Russell wielded, Val Kilmer has backed up the claim that Russell shot-listed “Tombstone” and served as the real director or co-director, with George P. Cosmatos acting as more of a ghost director. Even in the credits of “Tombstone” then, not everything is as it seems.
Case in point: one of the first faces Russell’s character meets when he and the Earp family ride their wagon into town is that of the local sheriff, Johnny Behan. Unlike Michael Biehn with Johnny Ringo, the actor who played Johnny Behan (also named Jon) didn’t grow a real mustache, but it was more an issue of time than a lack of commitment to his character. Biehn recalled further:
“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!'”
The funny thing is, there’s a scene in “Tombstone” where Wyatt Earp calls Sheriff Behan over to meet Doc Holliday. “Forgive me if I don’t shake hands,” Holliday says as he looks Behan up and down contemptuously. And while he has other reasons for not liking the lawman, maybe some small part of the tension in this scene arose from the fact that one man had a real mustache and the other didn’t.
“Tombstone” is currently streaming on Paramount+.