List of works about Billy the Kid

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The True Life of Billy the Kid first appeared in print in August 1881 The True Life of Billy the Kid (1881) cover (1945 reprint).jpg
The True Life of Billy the Kid first appeared in print in August 1881

Hundreds of songs, books, motion pictures, radio and television programs, and plays have been inspired by the story of the outlaw Billy the Kid. [1] Depictions of him in popular culture have fluctuated between a cold-blooded murderer without a heart and a sentimental hero fighting for justice. [2] The Texas historian, J. Frank Dobie, wrote many years ago in A Vaquero of the Brush Country (1929): "...Billy the Kid will always be interesting, will always appeal to the popular imagination". [3] While a plethora of writers and filmmakers have depicted Billy the Kid as the personification of either heroic youth or juvenile punk, [4] a few have attempted to portray a more complex character. [5] In any case, the dramatic aspects of his short life and violent death still appeal to popular taste, [6] and he remains an icon of teenage rebellion and nonconformity. [7] The mythologizing of his story continues with new works in various media. [8] [9]

Contents

Comics

Billy the Kid #9 (Nov. 1957). BillyTheKidNo9.png
Billy the Kid #9 (Nov. 1957).

Literature

Film

Note that both 1911 films portrayed Billy as a girl impersonating a boy.

Music

Stage

Radio

Television

Video games

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy the Kid</span> American outlaw and gunfighter (1859–1881)

Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who is alleged to have killed 21 men before he was shot and killed at the age of 21. He is also known for his involvement in New Mexico's Lincoln County War, during which he allegedly committed three murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Vaughn</span> American actor (1932–2016)

Robert Francis Vaughn was an American actor and political activist, whose career in film, television and theatre spanned nearly six decades. He was a Primetime Emmy Award winner, a four-time Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Roberts</span> American actress (1925–2016)

Doris May Roberts was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades of television and film. She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1951.

<i>Young Guns II</i> 1990 film by Geoff Murphy

Young Guns II is a 1990 American Western action film and a sequel to Young Guns (1988). It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Christian Slater, and features William Petersen as Pat Garrett. It was written by John Fusco and directed by Geoff Murphy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Garrett</span> American lawman (1850–1908)

Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender and customs agent known for killing Billy the Kid. He was the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico.

<i>Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid</i> (album) 1973 studio album by Bob Dylan

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is the twelfth studio album and first soundtrack album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 13, 1973, by Columbia Records for the Sam Peckinpah film of the same name. Dylan himself appeared in the film as the character "Alias". The soundtrack consists mainly of instrumental music and was inspired by the movie itself. The album includes "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", which became a trans-Atlantic Top 20 hit.

<i>The Outlaw</i> 1943 film

The Outlaw is a 1943 American Western film directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, and Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director. The film is notable as Russell's breakthrough role to becoming a sex symbol and Hollywood icon. Later advertising billed Russell as the sole star. The Outlaw is an early example of a psychological Western.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. Q. Jones</span> American actor (1927–2022)

Justus Ellis McQueen Jr., known professionally as L.Q. Jones, was an American actor. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's films Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973). His later film roles include Casino (1995), The Patriot, The Mask of Zorro (1998), and A Prairie Home Companion (2006).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dub Taylor</span> American actor (1907–1994)

Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr., was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extensively in films and on television, often in Westerns but also in comedies. He is the father of actor and painter Buck Taylor.

<i>Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid</i> 1973 film by Sam Peckinpah

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 American revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah, written by Rudy Wurlitzer, and starring James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Katy Jurado, Chill Wills, Barry Sullivan, Jason Robards, Slim Pickens and Bob Dylan. The film is about an aging Pat Garrett (Coburn), hired as a lawman by a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid (Kristofferson).

David Rudabaugh was a cowboy, outlaw, and gunfighter in the American Old West. Modern writers often refer to him as "Dirty Dave" because of his alleged aversion to water, though no evidence has emerged to show that he was ever referred to as such in his own lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Osborne</span> American film historian and actor (1932–2017)

Robert Jolin Osborne was an American film historian, television presenter, author, actor and the primary host for more than 20 years of the cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Prior to hosting at TCM, Osborne had been a host on The Movie Channel, and earlier, a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. Osborne wrote the official history of the Academy Awards, published in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Casey</span> American actor and professional football player (1939–2017)

Bernard Terry Casey was an American actor, poet, visual artist and professional American football player.

<i>Im Not There</i> 2007 film by Todd Haynes

I'm Not There is a 2007 musical drama film directed by Todd Haynes, and co-written by Haynes and Oren Moverman. An experimental biographical film, it is inspired by the life and music of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, with six actors depicting different facets of Dylan's public personas: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw. A caption at the start of the film declares it to be "inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan"; this is the only mention of Dylan in the film apart from song credits, and his only appearance in it is concert footage from 1966 shown during the film's final moments.

<i>Billy the Kid</i> (1930 film) 1930 film by King Vidor

Billy the Kid is a 1930 American pre-Code Western film directed in widescreen by King Vidor about the relationship between frontier outlaw Billy the Kid and lawman Pat Garrett. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.

"The Ballad of Billy the Kid" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel from the album Piano Man. It was also issued as a single in the UK backed with "If I Only Had The Words ."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Winters (choreographer)</span> American actor, dancer, and choreographer (1939–2019)

David Winters was an English-born American actor, dancer, choreographer, producer, distributor, director and screenwriter. At a young age, he acted in film and television projects such as Lux Video Theatre,Naked City; Mister Peepers,Rock, Rock, Rock, and Roogie's Bump. He received some attention in Broadway musicals for his roles in West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). In the film adaptation of West Side Story (1961) he was one of the few to be re-cast. It became the highest grossing motion picture of that year, and won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

<i>The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid</i> 1882 book by Pat Garrett

The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid, The Noted Desperado of the Southwest is a biography and partly first-hand account written by Pat Garrett, sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, in collaboration with a ghostwriter, Marshall Ashmun "Ash" Upson. During the summer of 1881 in a small New Mexican village, Garrett shot and killed the notorious outlaw, William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. Due to the first publisher's inability to widely distribute this book beginning in 1882, it sold relatively few copies during Garrett's lifetime. By the time the fifth publisher purchased the copyright in 1954, this book had become a major reference for historians who have studied the Kid's brief life. The promotion and distribution of the fifth version of this book to libraries in the United States and Europe sent it into a sixth printing in 1965, and by 1976 it had reached its tenth printing. For a generation after Sheriff Garrett shot the Kid, his account was considered to be factual, but historians have since found in this book many embellishments and inconsistencies with other accounts of the life of Billy the Kid.

<i>The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems</i> 1970 verse novel by Michael Ondaatje

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems is a verse novel by Michael Ondaatje, published in 1970. It chronicles and interprets important events in the life of William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, and his conflict with Sheriff Pat Garrett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legend of Billy the Kid</span>

The legend of Billy the Kid has acquired iconic status in American folklore, yet the outlaw himself, also known as William Bonney, had minimal impact on historical events in New Mexico Territory of the late 1800s. More has been written about Billy the Kid than any other gunslinger in the history of the American West, while hundreds of books, motion pictures, radio and television programs and even a ballet have been inspired by his legend.

References

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