Deadwood in film
Because of its association with several legendary western heroes, Deadwood has appeared in film regularly since the silent film era. Calamity Jane has been portrayed by Jean Arthur, Yvonne deCarlo, Doris Day, Anjelica Huston and Ellen Barkin, to name just a few. Her character has been romanced by Gary Cooper, Roy Rogers, and Howard Keel, among many others. Hickok was also portrayed by Josh Brolin, Robert Culp, Forrest Tucker, Jeff Bridges and Sam Elliott. Other characters from Deadwood’s history have been regularly portrayed in film and television, including Bill Cody, Al Swearengen, Charlie Utter, Seth Bullock, and many others.
The town has also appeared in comic books and animated shorts, including an episode of Quick Draw McGraw, which featured a gunslinger named Wild Bill Hiccup. Hickok is indelibly linked with the town in which he is buried, though he spent just a few short weeks there in the summer of 1876 before he was killed. Likewise, Hickok and Calamity Jane are forever linked in the mythology of the west, through the depiction of their relationship in film and on television, though the best evidence indicates that they only met when Jane joined the wagon train which carried Hickok to Deadwood and his destiny.