Why Doc Holliday Is Always Sweating In Tombstone

Val Kilmer’s hard-drinking Doc Holliday can be seen sweating all throughout the western biopic Tombstone, but there’s a historical reason – and a behind-the-scenes reason – for all the sweat in the movie. Set in Southeast Arizona in the 1880s, Tombstone depicts such real-life historical events as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the Earp Vendetta Ride. Kurt Russell leads the cast as notorious gunslinger Wyatt Earp, but Kilmer steals the movie with a universally acclaimed portrayal of Holliday.Tombstone was one of the most commercially successful Western films released after the genre’s heyday, and has been reappraised as a cult classic in the years since.

In Tombstone, Kilmer nailed Doc Holliday’s quick draw and genteel Southern accent. Earp and Holliday are just two of the real-life outlaws depicted in Tombstone; they appear alongside Johnny Ringo, played by Michael Biehn, and “Curly Bill” Brocius, played by Powers Boothe. But the film primarily focuses on the friendship between Kurt Russell’s Earp and Val Kilmer’s Holliday. In all his scenes, Kilmer’s Holliday can be seen sweating profusely. Not only is there a historical reason for Holliday to sweat so much; there’s also a behind-the-scenes explanation for it.

Doc Holliday Was Sweating So Much In Tombstone Because He Had Tuberculosis

It Was Known As Consumption At The Time

The reason why Doc Holliday was sweating so much in Tombstone was that, at the time the film was set, he was suffering from tuberculosis. When Earp first reunites with his long-time friend Holliday, Holliday is seeking refuge in the dry climate of Arizona to combat his worsening tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that typically affects the lungs (but can also affect other body parts). Sweating is a common symptom of tuberculosis, along with a fever, a chronic cough, and weight loss. The name for it in that era was “consumption,” so called because the disease consumed you by the end; most people who finally died from consumption were wasted away at the time of their passing.

How Doc Holliday Contracted Tuberculosis

He Likely Got It From His Mother

In truth, it’s almost impossible to say how Doc Holliday contracted tuberculosis. It wasn’t an uncommon illness in the mid-1800s, and it was (and still is) contagious. As an airborne virus, it can be spread through droplets in the air, so anyone with active tuberculosis who coughed or sneezed, or even talked, could transmit the disease. Still, as people have been reacquainted with in the Covid era, prolonged exposure and proximity can make someone more prone to contracting it, so it was most often spread between family members residing in the same house.

With that, the most likely explanation is that Doc Holliday contracted the disease from his mother. She contracted the disease when he was in his teens, passing away in 1866 when he was 15 or 16 years old. Shortly thereafter, the disease also took his adopted brother, Francisco. So by the time Doc Holliday, still known as John then, was in his late teens, the disease was already in his body, albeit dormant for the time being. By his early 20s, however, shortly before he began his dental practice, he was told he’d contracted tuberculosis, and he fled for the hotter, drier climate of the West to slow down the progression of the disease.

How Old Doc Holliday Was When He Died Of Tuberculosis

He Lived Longer With It Than He Did Without It

Something that’s often misunderstood today is that tuberculosis isn’t necessarily an immediate death sentence, nor was it back in Doc Holliday’s era. With a hotter, drier climate, and the remission of the disease, a person could live years, even decades, before succumbing. Holliday was one of those cases, living about two decades, well into his 30s, before the disease returned for the final time and ultimately took his life. By 1887, six years after the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Doc’s health had taken enough of a turn for the worse that he checked himself into a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs. The hospital specialized in treating tuberculosis, but after decades of hard living, Doc’s disease was too far advanced for successful treatment.

Leaving Tombstone, Doc Holliday eventually died of tuberculosis in his bed at the Hotel Glenwood in Glenwood Springs, CO at the age of 36. Just before he passed, Doc Holliday’s last words were reportedly, “This is funny.” He’d always imagined he’d likely die with his boots on, going out in a gunfight and blaze of glory, so the darkly humorous irony of him slowly dying in a bed, bootless, was not lost on him. His last words confirmed that though the disease had ravaged his body, Doc Holliday kept his trademark quick wit and his sardonic sense of humor to the end.

There Was Another Reason Why Val Kilmer Sweat So Much In Tombstone

The Arizona Sun Was Not Forgiving

Kilmer might have had a solid character-based reason for sweating in his Tombstone scenes, but it was also unavoidable due to the scorching heat in the Arizona filming locations. The cast didn’t just have the blistering Arizona sunshine beating down on them; they were also forced to wear costumes made of period-accurate wool, which was unbearably uncomfortable in the hot weather (via CinemaBlend). The gunslingers looked just like they would have in the 1880s, but it was at the expense of the actors’ comfort.

While the heat and the uncomfortable costumes helped Kilmer’s portrayal of a man dying of tuberculosis, the actor wasn’t too pleased with the conditions. He joked that wearing those clothes in that heat might have been why Holliday and his cronies killed so many people on the frontier. According to the Tombstone set’s thermometer, the shooting locations reached a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit. Dealing with that kind of heat made Kilmer understand why Holliday was eventually driven “mad” in real life.

Source: CinemaBlend