page_title: Wild Bill Hickok
section_title: Films
hierarchical_section_title: Wild Bill Hickok / In popular culture / Films
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped screenshot of Doris Day and Howard Keel from the trailer for the film Calamity Jane
context_page_description: James Butler Hickok, better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation.
  Hickok was born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois at a time when lawlessness and vigilante activity was rampant because of the influence of the "Banditti of the Prairie". Drawn to this ruffian lifestyle, he headed west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, working as a stagecoach driver and later as a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought and spied for the Union Army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life.
context_section_description: Paramount Pictures' Western silent film Wild Bill Hickok (released on November 18, 1923) was directed by Clifford Smith and stars William S. Hart as Hickok. A print of the film is maintained in the Museum of Modern Art film archive.
  The movie The Plainsman (1936), starring Gary Cooper as Hickok, features the alleged romance between him and Calamity Jane as its main plot line. It is a loose adaptation of Hickok's life, ending with his famous aces and eights card hand. A later film (1953) and subsequent stage musical—both titled Calamity Jane—also portray a romance between Calamity Jane and Hickok. In the film version, Howard Keel co-stars as Hickok to Doris Day's Calamity Jane.
  In the movie Little Big Man (1970), Wild Bill Hickok was played by Jeff Corey. The White Buffalo (1977), starring Charles Bronson as Hickok, tells a tale of Hickok's hunt for a murderous white buffalo that follows him in his nightmares.
  A highly fictional film account of Hickok's later years and death, titled Wild Bill (1995), stars Jeff Bridges as Hickok and David Arquette as Jack McCall, and was written and directed by Walter Hill.
  A semi-fictionalized version of Hickok's time as Marshal of Abilene Kansas, titled Hickok (2017), stars Luke Hemsworth as Hickok, Trace Adkins as the Bull's Head Saloon keeper Phil Coe, Kris Kristofferson as Abilene mayor George Knox, and Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau as John Wesley Hardin. It was written by Michael Lanahan and directed by Timothy Woodward Jr.
caption: Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) in the film musical, Calamity Jane.
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