Wyatt Earp was a person.
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp ( March 19 , 1848 -- January 13 , 1929 ) was an American Old West gambler , a deputy sheriff in Pima County , and deputy town marshal in Tombstone , Arizona Territory , who took part in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral , during which lawmen killed three outlaw cowboys . In 1870 , Earp married his first wife , Urilla Sutherland Earp , who contracted typhoid fever and died shortly before their first child was to be born . In 1876 , he followed his brother James to Dodge City , Kansas , where he became an assistant city marshal . The conflict escalated over the next year , culminating on October 26 , 1881 in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral , in which the Earps and Holliday killed three of the Cowboys . Earp was a lifelong gambler and was always looking for a quick way to make money .