Stuart N. Lake

Who was Stuart N. Lake?

Stuart Nathaniel Lake was a writer whose material dealt largely with the American Old West. He is most well known as the author of Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, a 1931 biography of Wyatt Earp that served as the basis for several movies, including Frontier Marshal starring Randolph Scott, and John Ford's My Darling Clementine, as well as the 1955 to 1961 television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, with Hugh O'Brian in the starring role. He also wrote for other motion pictures including The Westerner and Winchester '73 starring James Stewart.

Before becoming a writer, he had been a professional wrestling promoter, as well as a press aide to Theodore Roosevelt during the Bull Moose presidential campaign in 1912. He was run over by a truck in World War I. He was the first writer to describe Wyatt Earp's use of the Colt Buntline. Later researchers have been unable to establish that Earp ever owned such a weapon.