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50 free Deadwood trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Deadwood began as David Milch's pitch about ancient Rome; HBO already had Rome in development, so he moved his study of civilisation rising from chaos to a gold camp in the Black Hills in 1876. What followed was three seasons of Ian McShane's Al Swearengen, Timothy Olyphant's Seth Bullock, a profanity rate of 1.56 per minute and an ending that fans waited thirteen years to see finished. These 50 questions cover the whole run and the 2019 film: Wild Bill Hickok's murder at the No. 10 Saloon, Alma Garret's claim and her laudanum, the smallpox tents, Bullock and Al falling off the Gem balcony, Wolcott and the Chez Amis, Hearst's arrival and Al's severed finger, the election, the Pinkertons, the prostitute Jen and the bloodstain, and the statehood reunion in 1889 with Trixie's wedding and Charlie Utter's land. There are production questions too: the historian whose books Milch bought, the title music's kitchen pots, the two-day-per-episode structure that killed the fourth season, the cast members who died before the movie, the actor who missed it for Bosch, the Golden Globe and the eight Emmys. Easy questions stick to the network, the town and the leads; the hard ones ask about Yankton commissioners, Pinkerton tutors and closing-credit songs. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a prestige-TV quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which network did Deadwood originally air from 2004 to 2006?
HBO
It ran three seasons and won eight Emmys from 28 nominations.
Q 02Who created and largely wrote Deadwood?
David Milch
He used real 1870s diaries and newspapers as reference for characters and events.
Q 03In which present-day US state is Deadwood set?
South Dakota
The camp sits in the Black Hills before annexation by the Dakota Territory.
Q 04Who plays Al Swearengen?
Ian McShane
The British actor won a Golden Globe in 2005 for the role.
Q 05Who plays Seth Bullock?
Timothy Olyphant
He later played another lawman, Raylan Givens, in Justified.
Q 06What is the name of Al Swearengen's establishment?
The Gem
The real Al Swearengen owned the Gem Theater in Deadwood.
Q 07Which ancient civilisation did Milch originally want to set the story in?
Rome
HBO already had Rome in development and asked him to move the idea elsewhere; gold replaced the cross as the central symbol.
Q 08How many times is the word 'fuck' reportedly said in the first hour of the show?
43
Across the series the count reached 2,980, about 1.56 per minute.
Q 09In which year is the first season set?
1876
It opens six months after the camp's founding, soon after Custer's Last Stand.
Q 10What business does Bullock come to Deadwood to establish?
A hardware store
He leaves a marshal's job in Montana and partners with Sol Star.
Q 11Who plays Sol Star, Bullock's business partner?
John Hawkes
Sol, from Vienna, is the camp's only Jewish resident and later helps Alma found its first bank.
Q 12Who plays Wild Bill Hickok?
Keith Carradine
Hickok arrives weary, more interested in drink and cards than prospecting.
Q 13Where is Wild Bill Hickok murdered?
Tom Nuttall's place
The saloon is named for its address on the camp's main thoroughfare.
Q 14Who shoots Hickok in the back of the head?
Q 21Which disease spreads through the camp in season one, forcing plague tents?
Smallpox
The camp's senior men form a government partly in response to the crisis.
Q 22Who runs the Bella Union, Al's rival establishment?
Cy Tolliver
Powers Boothe played the ruthless Tolliver, who dies before the 2019 movie.
Q 23Who plays E. B. Farnum, the hotel owner and self-appointed mayor?
William Sanderson
Farnum is totally controlled by Swearengen yet nurses delusions of grandeur.
Q 24How does Al Swearengen end the suffering of the dying Reverend Smith?
Jack McCall
A hurried camp jury acquits him; Bullock and Charlie Utter later haul him to Yankton for trial.
Q 15Which actor plays both Hickok's killer and, in season two, Francis Wolcott?
Garret Dillahunt
He returned again as a background drunk in the 2019 movie, heckling Hearst.
Q 16Who plays Alma Garret?
Molly Parker
Her New York husband Brom is conned into a 'worthless' claim that turns out to be rich.
Q 17What secret habit does Alma Garret nurse when she arrives?
Laudanum
Trixie later helps her kick the habit against Swearengen's wishes.
Q 18How does Dan Dority kill Brom Garret on Al's orders?
Throws him off a cliff
Only afterwards does he discover the claim is actually a rich one.
Q 19Who plays the hard-drinking frontierswoman who idolises Hickok?
Robin Weigert
Calamity Jane, a former Custer scout, helps Doc Cochran during the smallpox outbreak.
Q 20Who plays Doc Cochran?
Brad Dourif
The Civil War veteran is the camp's only doctor and unafraid to scold Al and Cy alike.
Smothers him
The reverend, played by Ray McKinnon, is dying from an apparent brain tumour.
Q 25Who kills Magistrate Clagett on Swearengen's behalf and then becomes his agent?
Silas Adams
Titus Welliver played the 'bagman from Yankton'; he missed the movie while filming Bosch.
Q 26What stops Al from cutting the sheriff's throat after they fall off the Gem balcony?
The arrival of Martha and William
Martha Bullock, played by Anna Gunn, arrives in camp at that moment.
Q 27What ailment leaves Swearengen collapsed behind a locked door in season two?
Kidney stones
Doc Cochran drains them; Al passes the stones but suffers a small stroke.
Q 28Whom does Alma marry to avoid the shame of being pregnant by Bullock?
Whitney Ellsworth
Trixie persuades the kindly prospector to propose; actor Jim Beaver suggested the first name.
Q 29Jim Beaver named his character after the first producer of which TV show?
Adventures of Superman
Beaver, a film historian writing a George Reeves biography, proposed 'Whitney Ellsworth'.
Q 30What is the name of the brothel Joanie Stubbs opens in season two?
The Chez Amis
Jack Langrishe later buys the building, by then a schoolhouse, for his theatre.