John holliday biography

HOLLIDAY, DOC (1852-1887)

Photograph of John Henry "Doc" Holliday

John Henry "Doc" Holliday, perhaps the most written about dentist in American history, was one of the most colorful and enigmatic characters on the nineteenth-century frontier.

The frail, tubercular Georgian became a popular folk legend after participating in the famous gunfight outside the OK Corral. Holliday's image as a killer and peerless duelist has been embellished through countless newspaper and magazine articles, books, television shows, and motion pictures.

While the Doc Holliday of fiction and folklore continues to be an enduring symbol of America's violent frontier past, the historical personality behind the myth remains an elusive, complex figure.

Doc Holliday was born on August 14, 1852, at Griffin, Georgia, the only son of Jane and Henry B.

Holliday, a planter, lawyer, and politician. After attending dentistry school, Holliday opened a practice in Atlanta in 1872. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1873