CAST OF CHARACTERS-SEASON ONE (Where everyone has a secret) THE LAW Wyatt Earp, 33 Quiet, and with a commanding presence, his gravitas draws loyalty, admiration and enmity. He is the leader of his family, though not the eldest. Despite these qualities he can be too trusting. He learned law enforcement in the tough cattle towns of Wichita and Dodge City but sheds his badge to pursue riches in Tombstone. He reluctantly becomes a lawman again when his plans fail. Wyatt is content with a good card game and being left alone. His gambling instincts serve him well in cards and Tombstone. A teetotaler in a hard-drinking territory, he is a sober voice of reason. When others run from danger, Wyatt always moves to the flame. He will hold multiple peace officer positions in and around Tombstone as it suffers through the agony of outlaw outrages. He often does not even carry a gun because he can enforce the law with his fists. Though married, his bedrock loyalties are to his two lawmen brothers and a gambler named Doc Holliday. He will stray from his wife with Sadie Marcus. Key traits: 1. A dreamer, therefore, the present is never good quite enough. 2. There are ghosts from his past that make happiness hard for him to grasp and more importantly, hold. 3. He wants stability but is a restless spirit (the epitome of so many who came west). 4. His stability comes from being with his brothers. 5. His joys (gambling, laughter) are only fleeting. 6. He has the capacity to love but is no longer in love with his common-law wife Mattie.
Virgil Earp, 38 The eldest brother is the moral spine of the Earp family, but also has a dubious past. Like Wyatt he is soft spoken to outsiders but is made of steel. A career lawman, Virgil has used deadly force in the past to keep the peace. He cannot be bought or influenced by threats. He has immense self-control and is slow to anger but quick to act when the situation demands it. His wisdom to know the difference between real and perceived threats makes Tombstone the safest island in a sea of banditry. Key traits: 1. Happily married, Virgil values stability. 2. Choosing between chasing riches and doing what’s right, he always lands on the less lucrative option. 3. He values family above all. 4. He has two tragic previous marriages, causing him to keep Allie close. Morgan Earp, 29 The younger brother and the most outgoing of the lawmen. Fun-loving Morgan is content to follow the lead of his brothers. When his wife is away, he has a wandering eye. He plays as hard as he works and can be impetuous and even reckless. If one of the Earps is going to get picked on it will be Morgan. Key traits: 1. Close to Wyatt in age and shared experiences, some questionable. 2. Lacks higher aspirations. 3. One of his closest relationships is with his hound dog.
THE OUTLAWS Ike Clanton, 34 A big-mouthed, insecure rancher who is one of the middlemen for cattle rustling and a rustler himself. Egotistical, he wants respect but cannot earn it honestly. He has no ethics and fancies himself as more important than he is, especially when drunk, which is often. When his father dies, he becomes erratic, even irrational. His frequent threats against the Earps and loose tongue are the direct cause of the gunfight. Key traits: 1. Likes to strut when away from his dad, especially when drinking. 2. He would be a loudmouth nobody anywhere else. 3. His dad tries to keep him and their criminal enterprise in the shadows. 4. A coward, he hides behind big threats, gambling his bluff will never be called. Old Man Clanton, 65 Ike’s father is the brains behind their cattle ranch and rustling. A calculating man, he conducts business on both sides of the law. His main struggle is trying to keep Ike in check. His death at the hands of Mexicans while rustling removes the brakes on Ike’s behavior. Key traits: 1. A survival of the fittest man. 2. He is the big fish in his own small pond. 3. He loves his sons, even if they aren’t made of the flint he is. 4. At his age, the only thrill he has comes from his criminality.
Tom and Frank Mc Laury, 28 & 33 The brothers own a ranch and purchase stolen cattle to re-sell to butchers in and around Tombstone. They are the clean faces of a dirty business, along with the Clantons. As the Earps try to catch them in the act, they make frequent, sometime deadly, threats directly to their faces. At the time of the gunfight, they are preparing to visit back home in Iowa to attend their sister’s wedding. They will both die in a hail of bullets at OK Corral. Key traits: 1. More refined than Ike, but not slick. Frank is clearly the leader. 2. They are not ruthless but are excellent schemers. 3. They prefer staying in the shadows of the Cowboys. 4. To many, if not most people in Tombstone, they are legal but with a whisper of danger. John Ringo, 30 The most notorious, yet enigmatic outlaw. He has an edge about him. Very tall and imposing, he seems dangerous—it’s not about what he has done, but what he could do. He inspires fear in others and is a leader of Cowboy depredations. He is smarter than the other cowboys, and everyone knows it. He reads books and speaks intelligently. His mystique tends to charm women, including Kate Elder Holliday. Secretly, Ringo gives Kate money to leave town while Doc is in jail after the gunfight. Key traits: 1. He likes his reputation and uses it to good advantage, leveraging every conversation, every relationship. 2. He revels in holding court with his peers because he feels himself superior which, by intellect, he is. 3. He is a smart risk taker, never putting himself in a position to be compromised. 4. He has a deadly past and is without any long-term plan for the future.
Curley Bill Brocious, 34 A big, strong outlaw leader who is friendly when sober and a beast when drunk. His great enjoyment is living up to his criminal reputation. He is emblematic of the outlaw movement: a restless, drifting man, running from his past, stealing to survive. At gunpoint, he drunkenly makes a preacher dance and also forces an entire dance hall to strip naked so he can watch them gyrate. He seems to always be one step ahead of Sheriff Behan who is no hurry to apprehend him. Key traits: 1. He only knows the wrong side of the law. 2. He was raised right but fell in with the wrong crowd where he is comfortable. 3. He first uses his size to get his way, only resorting to violence when he deems it necessary. 4. He gets into much of his trouble when drunk, which is often. 5. He has no interests beyond the bottle and the next caper.
THOSE IN BETWEEN John Henry “Doc” Holliday, 31 One of the most complex characters of the West. Both charmer and belligerent, he can be funny and friendly one minute, morose and threatening the next. He is consumed by his demons who live very close to the surface. He has no long-term dreams because of his tuberculosis. He has no close attachments to anything except that which makes him feel alive. His two great passions are gambling and liquor. He has an unusual sense of honor, and it is never certain on which side of it he will land. Holliday saved Wyatt’s life in Dodge City, which was the start of an unlikely friendship that mystifies all who know them both. His erratic demeanor become a millstone around the Earps’ necks as events spiral out of control. His relationship with Kate is one of the great oddities of the West. Even after she accuses Doc of stage robbery, he takes her back to their love nest as if nothing happened, with Ringo lurking in the wings. Key traits: 1. Would be diagnosed bi-polar today. 2. His own worst enemy and he seems to know it. 3. He craves friendship but doesn’t know how to keep one. 4. He both adores and torments Kate. 5. He is 100-proof gunpowder.
Sheriff Johnny Behan, 36 Behan is a 22-caliber man in a 45-caliber territory. He succeeds because he talks a better game than he plays. Behan enjoys enormous popularity because of his charisma. Behind his public persona he hides what he truly is: a glad-handing scoundrel. He is clever, political, two-faced and deceitful to nearly everyone with whom he has dealings, including women. Key traits: 1. A con man constantly trying to stay one step ahead of those he’s hoodwinking. 2. Smartly knows how to balance the law and self-interest. 3. Law job allows him to know where the power lies and where money can be made. 4. Sees women as both a conquest and disposable. 5. Ultimately, he is trying to hide incompetence and cowardice behind his glad-handing façade. 6. It is not a question if he will betray, but when. 7. Because of his cowardice he will always try influencing events behind the scenes. 8. As events begin spinning out of control, he must double down on his con. 9. To enhance his power, he walks a tightrope between appeasing the cowboys while appearing to enforce the law. John Clum, 30 As a sharp, well-intentioned, honest mayor and community voice as a law-and-order newspaper editor, his voice carries weight. But he is merely one voice where rules are loose among the many competing interests in a free-wheeling boomtown growing too fast. He cannot successfully lead without men like the Earps. Key traits: 1. A crusader who shows courage. 2. A chauvinist and a man sure of himself and his beliefs, but not a dominating personality. 3. Must balance investor concerns against the realities of a booming, amoral town. 4. His alliances are to advance the common good, and by extension, himself and his profile.
Harry Woods, 32 A baby-faced opportunist who gravitates to men like Behan whose favor he patronizes and whose undersheriff he becomes. As editor of the Tombstone Nugget (the editorial opposite of Clum’s paper) his voice carries weight in support of Behan, though his incompetence as a lawman creates lasting friction with the Earps. Key traits: 1. He is afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis. 2. He and Behan are cut from the same cloth: using public service as a path to wealth. 3. He rarely ever wavers from downplaying cowboy violence, even the most heinous. 4. He uses his newspaper to attack Behan’s foes. Clara Brown, 26 The New England-bred wife of a mining engineer, this society reporter for the San Diego Union transforms into a chronicler of Tombst one’s plunge into darkness. She grows fearless as she engages virtually all the key characters in pursuit of the truth. In seasons 2-3, her reporting provides the only non-partisan account of the gunfight’s aftermath and the horrors that followed. Key traits: 1. Initially, passionate and dreamy, she has a great capacity for emotional and intellectual growth. 2. She has secret ambitions of becoming a writer of stature. 3. Not having a side in the fight, she is the conscience of Tombstone. George Parsons, 29 A former banker who epitomizes Tombstone. He’s a dreamer there to make his fortune while the silver mines are flush. His great joy and talent is commenting on life. A man incapable of keeping a secret, rumors pass through him on to the Earps. He’s equally adept in social circles, saloons or vigilante groups. Key traits: 1. A man in love with the spirit of life that exists in Tombstone. 2. He is able to balance the good life with the evil he abhors. 3. Happier to observe, than participate.
Judge James Reilly, 51 A rough-and-tumble character, he is one of the oldest residents in Tombstone with any authority. He has held many jobs, including Indian fighter on the path to becoming a lawyer. His self-worth comes from his judgeship and anyone who challenges him does so at his own peril. Key Traits: 1. He is cantankerous and quick-tempered. 2. His ego demands unquestioned obedience. 3. A man not prone to forgiving slights, he uses his status to even scores with impunity. 4. An archenemy of Wyatt. THE WOMEN Kate Elder Holliday, 29 Doc’s common-law wife is a drug he cannot kick. She is an alluring, exotic Hungarian-born beauty but also a hard-drinking, sharp-tongued ex-prostitute. Not one to hold back opinions, she is jealous of Wyatt and his influence on Doc. Her drunken tongue unleashes a firestorm of controversy involving Doc and a deadly stage robbery. She is not above a little flirtation and has a secret dalliance with John Ringo. It is a love triangle that continues after the gunfight and brings the two men into armed confrontation. Key traits: 1. She has no dreams but to enjoy the “now.” 2. She needs someone to adore her, which Doc does, but Doc is too independent for her to control. 3. Her uneven relationship with Doc allows her flirtatious side to appear. 4. She needs to be admired for her beauty. It validates her. 5. She is an alcoholic. Her demons come out when she drinks. 6. She dresses flamboyantly and is one of the rare women who smokes.
Josephine “Sadie” Marcus, 19 A beautiful young woman, with a figure to match, Sadie was Johnny Behan’s fiancée. Catching Behan cheating on her, Sadie leaves him and eventually enters into a relationship with Wyatt. Their secret romance blossoms in the late summer of 1881, in part because she makes Wyatt laugh. Though very few know of the affair, Behan does, further straining an already tense relationship with Wyatt. Sadie and Wyatt part ways before the Vendetta ride but reunite in San Francisco to spend the rest of their lives together. Key traits: 1. She has a lightness that brightens a room. 2. Her “glass half full” attitude gets her through trying times. 3. Quick to fall in love. 4. Impetuous and rebellious. 5. Hides her past as a teenage prostitute. Mattie Earp, 31 Wyatt’s common-law wife has trouble finding joy in life. Her husband is all she has, but there is a distance about her that prevents him or anyone else from getting close to her. That distance contributes to Wyatt straying into the arms of another woman. Key traits: 1. A lonely, clingy woman who is afraid to be happy because her suppressed past. 2. A “glass half empty” person. 3. She is attracted to Wyatt by his badge and strength, but fearful she could lose him at any time to a bullet. 4. She has no interests of her own, except needlepoint to pass the time. 5. She desires to be taken care, but Wyatt is often away.
Allie Earp, 30 Virgil’s wife is short, but Irish tough, devoted and candid. She is a perfect match for Virgil — his rock. She is the self-appointed matriarch of the Earp women, always ready to provide a kind word or a reality check when it is needed. Key traits: 1. A mama bear mentality, ever protecting Virgil. 2. She knows the Earp brothers are inseparable and reconciles herself to being Virgil’s second love. 3. She is a confidant in a way neither Wyatt nor Morgan can be.