List of cultural depictions of Wild Bill Hickok

Wild Bill Hickok, (1837–1876) lawman, gunfighter and gambler, of the American Wild West has been depicted many times and in many forms of media. It is difficult to separate the truth from fiction about Hickok who was the first "dime novel" hero of the western era, with his exploits presented in heroic form, making him seem larger than life. In truth, most of the stories were greatly exaggerated or fabricated by both the writers and himself. With the frontiersman Davy Crockett, Hickok also became one of the first comic book heroes.

Television

• Portrayed by Guy Madison in the 1951-58 series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, as well as in the Mutual Broadcasting radio series "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok," 271 half-hour programs 1951-54.
• Played by Lloyd Bridges in a 1964 episode of the anthology The Great Adventure.
• Portrayed by Josh Brolin in the 1989-92 series The Young Riders.
• Portrayed by William Russ in episode 1.06 of the 1995 series Legend, episode 1.06 "The Life, Death and Life of Wild Bill Hickok." The episode portrays him faking his own death so that he can retire peacefully.
• Dramatized in the HBO series Deadwood, in which he is portrayed by Keith Carradine.
• In the 1995 made-for-television film Buffalo Girls based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, he was played by actor Sam Elliott with Anjelica Huston as Calamity Jane. The film (as does the book on which it is based) portrays the legend that Calamity Jane had a daughter by him.
• Played by Sam Shepard in the 1999 film Purgatory, a made-for-television film on TNT
• Histeria! featured Hickok in the episode "North America"; he appears in a sketch where Lydia Karaoke hosts a game show in which her contestants must guess Hickok's occupation.

Films

• Played by William S. Hart in the 1923 film Wild Bill Hickok
• Played by Gary Cooper in the 1936 film The Plainsman, featuring Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane and directed by Cecil B. DeMille
• In The Three Stooges short Goofs and Saddles (1937) Moe Howard's character is known as "Wild Bill Hiccup".
• Played by Wild Bill Elliott in the 1938 serial The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
• Played by Roy Rogers in the 1940 film Young Bill Hickok, directed by Joseph Kane
• Played by Bruce Cabot in the 1942 film Wild Bill Hickok Rides
• Played by Howard Keel in the 1953 film Calamity Jane
• Played by Forrest Tucker in the 1953 film Pony Express
• Played by Tom Brown in the 1956 film I Killed Wild Bill Hickok
• Played by Robert Culp in the 1963 film The Raiders, directed by Hershel Daugherty
• Portrayed by Jeff Corey in the 1970 Arthur Penn film Little Big Man
• Portrayed by Charles Bronson in the 1977 film The White Buffalo
• Portrayed by Richard Farnsworth in the 1981 film The Legend of the Lone Ranger
• Portrayed by Jeff Bridges in the 1995 film Wild Bill
• Portrayed by Gerard Buehler in the 1998 TV documentary series Gunfighters of the West narrated by Brian Dennehey

Novels

• Little Big Man (1964), Thomas Berger
• The Return of Little Big Man (1999), Thomas Berger
• Darlin' Bill: A Love Story of the Wild West (1980), Jerome Charyn
• Deadwood (1986), Pete Dexter
• Under the Stars and Bars, J.T.Edson
• And Not to Yield, Randy Lee Eickoff
• Aces & Eights (1981), Loren D. Estleman
• A Breed Apart Max Evans
• The Lawless, Volume VII of The Kent Family Chronicles (1978), John Jakes
• The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok (1996), Richard Matheson
• The White Buffalo, Richard Sale

Comic Books

• Classics Illustrated No. 121, Wild Bill Hickok, published by Gilberton Co., Inc., July 1954; interior art by Sal Trapani and Medio Iorio.^[1]
• Cowboy Western #62 Wild Bill Hickok 1957
• Young Wild Bill Hickok appears as part of The League of Infinity, a team of teenage heroes from different eras in Supreme (comics) as written by Alan Moore circa 1994.
• Hickok has a 2nd-tier, but prominent role in Vertigo's mini-series, "Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo" wherein he survived being shot but was buried alive, only to be made into a mindless "zombie" by the antogonist of the story.

Music

• "Deadwood Mountain", Big and Rich
• "Wild Bill Hickup", parody by Spike Jones
• "Aces and Eight", David John
• "The Ace of Spades", Motörhead
• "Rhymes of the Renegades", Michael Martin Murphey
• "The Burial Of Wild Bill", John Wallace Crawford, performed by Norman Blake on Flower From the Fields of Alabama
• "Philadelphia Lawyer" by Woodie Guthrie
• "Rambling, Gambling Willie", Bob Dylan
• "Wild Bill," Blue Highway

Reference