Navy League RVA

And now you know the rest of the story!

Kurt Russell once revealed that after filming "Tombstone" (1993), where he played Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer played Doc Holliday, their wrap gifts were not watches, jackets, or framed photos. They were darker, stranger, and perfectly tied to the movie. Russell gave Kilmer a burial plot at Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona. Kilmer, without Russell knowing, had already prepared a gift for him too, an acre of land overlooking that same cemetery.

Russell explained that gift-giving at the end of a film was something actors sometimes did, especially after a hard shoot with people they respected. He did not describe it like a formal rule. He made it sound like an old-school actor habit, something personal. “In those days, especially when you were working with people, sometimes at the end of the show you’d get them gifts or trade gifts,” he said. “It’s not mandatory, it’s not something that you gotta do or that they’ve gotta do.”

The gift Russell chose was not random. Kilmer had played Doc Holliday, the sick, sharp-tongued gambler whose body was failing while his loyalty to Wyatt stayed alive. A burial plot at Boothill fit Doc’s shadow perfectly. Boothill was not just any cemetery either. It was part of Tombstone’s Old West identity, the kind of place tied to outlaws, gunmen, gamblers, and the violent history the film had brought back to life.

Russell had a whole presentation idea behind the gift. He wanted Kilmer’s movie items gathered, including the holster, gun, hat, and chair with his name on the back. Then he wanted a photo taken with the gift included. That detail makes the whole thing feel less like a joke and more like a very Kurt Russell move. He was not just handing over paperwork. He was building a memory around Kilmer’s Doc Holliday.

Then Kilmer turned the moment around. Russell gave him the present, and Kilmer immediately told his driver to bring out his own gift. Russell remembered it this way. “I give Val this present and he looks at me and he turns to his driver and he says, ‘Give it to me.’ Because what I had gotten Val was a plot at Boothill, what Val had gotten me was an acre of land overlooking Boothill.”

That is the part fans love because neither gift needed to be explained for long. Kilmer gave Russell open land above the cemetery, not a grave inside it. Russell played Wyatt Earp, the man who survived, moved forward, and carried the story past Tombstone. Kilmer played Doc, the man followed by illness and death. One got earth for a final resting place. The other got land with a view above it.

Russell later laughed while explaining why the gifts fit so perfectly. “Doc Holliday was all about death, but Wyatt’s all about life,” he said. “I guess that pretty much says it all.” That one line is why the story keeps getting shared. It is funny, a little eerie, and somehow more meaningful because both men arrived at the same idea from opposite directions. They understood their characters that deeply.

The best part is that the exchange did not feel like Hollywood trying to create a publicity moment. It felt like two actors finishing a demanding Western and leaving each other with something only they could fully appreciate. No big speech was needed. A grave plot for Doc. A living piece of land for Wyatt. That was enough. Some gifts end a movie. This one stayed in the legend.