I'll tell you a story a real true life story
A tale of the Western frontier.
The West, it was lawless,
but one man was flawless
and his is the story you'll hear.
[Chorus:]
Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp,
Brave courageous and bold.
Long live his fame and long live his glory
and long may his story be told.
When he came to Kansas, to settle in Kansas,
He dreamed of a peaceable life,
Some goods and some chattel,
A few head of cattle,
A home and a sweet, loving wife.
(Chorus)
Now he wasn't partial to being a marshall,
but fate went and dealt him his hand,
While outlaws were looting, and killing and shooting,
he knew that he must take a stand.
(Chorus)
Well he cleaned up the country
The old wild west country
He made law and order prevail.
And none can deny it
The legend of Wyatt
Forever will live on the trail.
(Chorus)
Hugh O'Brian, who helped tame the Wild West as the star of TV's “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” and was the founder of a long-running youth leadership development organization, has died. He was 91.
O'Brian, who had several health issues, died Monday morning [September 5th] with his wife nearby at their Beverly Hills home, his publicist Harlan Boll said.
Handsome, square-jawed and athletically fit, the dark-haired O'Brian appeared in a string of movies and TV anthology series in the years before he became a star portraying the real-life Old West peace officer on “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” which ran on ABC from 1955 to 1961.
TV's first adult western, “Wyatt Earp” became a top 10-rated series and made O'Brian a household name.
Portraying what the show's theme song described as the “brave, courageous and bold” frontier lawman, O'Brian wore a black frock coat, a gold brocade vest, a string tie and a flat-brimmed black hat — and he kept the peace with the help of a “Buntline Special”: a .45 revolver with an extra-long barrel.
Decades later, O'Brian showed up as Earp in two 1989 episodes of the TV western “Paradise.” He also appeared as Earp in the 1991 Kenny Rogers TV miniseries “The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw”. And he starred in “Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone,” a 1994 TV movie that included flashbacks to scenes from his old series.
As O'Brian once said of the TV western that made him a star: “It's been a great horse, and she keeps coming around the corral.”
He also starred in the 1972-73 NBC adventure series “Search.”
O'Brian, who had several health issues, died Monday morning [September 5th] with his wife nearby at their Beverly Hills home, his publicist Harlan Boll said.
Handsome, square-jawed and athletically fit, the dark-haired O'Brian appeared in a string of movies and TV anthology series in the years before he became a star portraying the real-life Old West peace officer on “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” which ran on ABC from 1955 to 1961.
TV's first adult western, “Wyatt Earp” became a top 10-rated series and made O'Brian a household name.
Portraying what the show's theme song described as the “brave, courageous and bold” frontier lawman, O'Brian wore a black frock coat, a gold brocade vest, a string tie and a flat-brimmed black hat — and he kept the peace with the help of a “Buntline Special”: a .45 revolver with an extra-long barrel.
Decades later, O'Brian showed up as Earp in two 1989 episodes of the TV western “Paradise.” He also appeared as Earp in the 1991 Kenny Rogers TV miniseries “The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw”. And he starred in “Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone,” a 1994 TV movie that included flashbacks to scenes from his old series.
As O'Brian once said of the TV western that made him a star: “It's been a great horse, and she keeps coming around the corral.”
He also starred in the 1972-73 NBC adventure series “Search.”
- Dennis McLellan
LA Times
"I decided to take my mother's family name, O'Brien. But they misspelled it as 'O'Brian' and I just decided to stay with that," O'Brian said to the LA Times in 2013. (So it's a good thing I didn't bring up how he was misspelling the family name when I got the chance to meet him in the 1990s. But he had other things 0n his mind and he unloaded them on me. But that's a story from the real world and we don't do dat.)
LA Times
"I decided to take my mother's family name, O'Brien. But they misspelled it as 'O'Brian' and I just decided to stay with that," O'Brian said to the LA Times in 2013. (So it's a good thing I didn't bring up how he was misspelling the family name when I got the chance to meet him in the 1990s. But he had other things 0n his mind and he unloaded them on me. But that's a story from the real world and we don't do dat.)
In Juy of 2002, when Television Crossover Hall of Fame was celebrating duos in TV, both Hugh O'Brian and Gene Barry were honored with an induction based on their portrayals of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson (respectively) in their eponymous series, 'The Guns Of Paradise', and "The Gambler IV: The Luck Of The Draw". (O'Brian also had that other TV movie three years later as well.)
Even within Earth Prime-Time O'Brian was known for playing Earp - as seen in an episode of 'Make Room For Daddy' in which he played himself. But that's okay since O'Brian was playing an historical figure in the TV show, we can just claim that he looked EXACTLY like Wyatt Earp. Should any other TV show mention other portrayals of Earp - they are just references to movies, TV movies, or from other TV shows which would be considered fictional. Any appearance by Earp that should be considered part of Earth Prime-Time - like 'Deadwood', 'Pistols 'n' Petticoats', 'Alias Smith & Jones', and even the aforementioned 'Bat Masterson' - then we are seeing the real Earp, but as they were viewed by one of that particular show's characters.*
Good night and may God bless "Cousin" Hugh O'Brian.....
* O'BSERVATION:
The TV shows in which characters who claimed to be Earp but who were impostors [of one sort or another] would include:
- 'Doctor Who' - alien construct
- 'Star Trek' - alien construct
- 'Buffalo Bill, Jr.' - alternate dimension
- 'Tales Of The Century' - a tall tale told by an outright liar!
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