List of works about Billy the Kid

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]

The True Life of Billy the Kid first appeared in print in August 1881

Comics

 

Billy the Kid #9 (Nov. 1957).

• Billy the Kid Adventure Magazine (1950–1955)^[10]
• Billy the Kid (1957–1983)
• Billy the Kid (1962)
• L'Escorte (1966)
• Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities (2005)
• The True Death of Billy the Kid (2018)

Literature

• El asesino desinteresado Bill Harrigan (1935), a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, part of the series A Universal History of Infamy.
• Billy The Kid (1958), a serial poem by Jack Spicer^[11]
• El bandido adolescente (1965), by Ramón J. Sender.^[12]
• The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-handed Poems, by Michael Ondaatje, 1970 biography in the form of experimental poetry^[13]
• The Illegal Rebirth of Billy the Kid (1991) is a science fiction novel by Rebecca Ore^[14]
• Anything for Billy (1988) is a fictionalized account of Billy's last year by Larry McMurtry^[15]
• The Kid (2016), a novel of Billy the Kid's life by Ron Hansen^[16]
• Whatever Happened to Billy the Kid, by Helen Airy, Sunstone Press; 1st Edition (2005), ISBN 978-0865341852. In it Billy the Kid escapes from Pat Garrett's and lives out his life as John Miller.^[17][18]

Film

• Billy the Kid, a 1911 silent film directed by Laurence Trimble and starring Tefft Johnson^[19]
• The Adventures of Billy, another 1911 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith, Starring: Edna Foster^[20]

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

• Billy the Kid, 1930 widescreen film directed by King Vidor and starring Johnny Mack Brown as Billy and Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett^[21]
• Billy the Kid Returns, 1938: Roy Rogers plays a dual role, Billy the Kid and his dead-ringer lookalike who shows up after the Kid has been shot by Pat Garrett.^[22]
• Billy the Kid, 1941 remake of the 1930 film, starring Robert Taylor and Brian Donlevy^[23]
• Bob Steele and Buster Crabbe portrayed Billy the Kid in a series of 42 western films from 1940 through 1947, released by Poverty Row studio Producers Distributing Corporation. Some of the titles include Blazing Frontier, The Renegade, Cattle Stampede, and Western Cyclone (1943).^[24] In a 1952 film, Allan "Rocky" Lane goes after Billy the Kid's lost treasure.^[25]
• The Outlaw, Howard Hughes' 1943 motion picture starring Jack Buetel as Billy and featuring Jane Russell in her breakthrough role as the Kid's fictional love interest^[26][27]
• I Shot Billy the Kid, a 1950 film directed by William Berke and starring Don "Red" Barry as Billy^[28]
• The Kid from Texas (1950) starring Audie Murphy as Billy the Kid^[29]
• The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954, Columbia Pictures Corporation) starring Scott Brady as the Kid, James Griffith as Pat Garrett, Betta St. John as Nita Maxwell, and Alan Hale, Jr. as Bob Olinger^[30][31]
• The Left Handed Gun, Arthur Penn's 1958 motion picture based on a Gore Vidal teleplay, starring Paul Newman as Billy and John Dehner as Garrett^[32][33]
• The Boy from Oklahoma (1954), with Tyler MacDuff in the role of Billy the Kid^[34]
• Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), directed by William Beaudine, has Count Dracula, played by John Carradine, traveling to the Old West, where he takes a shine to Billy's fiancée and tries to turn her into a vampire. Chuck Courtney co-stars as Billy.^[35][36]
• Chisum (1970), set during the Lincoln County War, was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and stars Geoffrey Deuel as Billy and Glenn Corbett as Pat Garrett.^[37]
• Dirty Little Billy (1972), set during Billy's early years as a criminal, starred Michael J. Pollard^[38]
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Sam Peckinpah's 1973 motion picture with Kris Kristofferson as Billy, James Coburn as Pat Garrett, and with a soundtrack by Bob Dylan, who also appears in the movie^[39]
• The New Morning of Billy the Kid (1986), a Japanese absurdist comedy directed by Naoto Yamakawa
• Young Guns, Christopher Cain's 1988 motion picture starring Emilio Estevez as Billy and Patrick Wayne as Pat Garrett^[40]
• Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, Gore Vidal's 1989 television film starring Val Kilmer as Billy and Duncan Regehr as Pat Garrett^[41]
• Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, a 1989 film, which included several historical figures traveling through time, including Billy the Kid, who was portrayed by Dan Shor.
• Young Guns II, Geoff Murphy's 1990 motion picture starring Emilio Estevez as Billy and William Petersen as Pat Garrett^[42]
• Purgatory, Uli Edel's 1999 made-for-TV movie starring Donnie Wahlberg as Deputy Glen/Billy The Kid^[43]
• Requiem for Billy the Kid, Anne Feinsilber's 2006 motion picture starring Kris Kristofferson^[44]
• Birth of a Legend, a 2011 film in two parts based on Frederick Nolan's book The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History directed by Andrew Wilkinson^[45]
• The Kid, a 2019 film directed by Vincent D'Onofrio and starring Dane DeHaan as Billy the Kid.^[46]
• Old Henry, a 2021 film directed by Potsy Ponciroli and starring Tim Blake Nelson as Henry McCarty. The film posits Billy returned to his birth name after surviving the supposed assassination.

Music

• "Billy the Kid" is a western folk song in the public domain, which was published in John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax's American Ballads and Folksongs album,^[47] and also their Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads album.^[48] Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.^[49] The song's lyrics perpetuate several myths about the Kid, such as his exaggerated kill count of "twenty-one men" and the suggestion that Pat Garrett had known him as a friend.
• There have been many recordings of this song, including versions by the Sons of the Pioneers (1937), Woody Guthrie (1940, recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress #3412 B₂), Tex Ritter (1945), and Marty Robbins (1959, on his Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs album).^[50]
• Woody Guthrie later used the same melody for his song "So Long, it's Been Good to Know You". He also recorded it in 1944 for Moe Asch's Asch/Folkways label (MA67).^[51]
• Bob Dylan's album Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, soundtrack of the 1973 film by Sam Peckinpah.^[39]
• "The Ballad of Billy the Kid", song sung by Billy Joel on the 1973 Piano Man album.
• Charlie Daniels recorded the song "Billy the Kid" on his 1976 album High Lonesome.^[52] Chris LeDoux also covered the song on his album Haywire.^[53]
• Joe Ely recorded the song "Me and Billy the Kid" on his 1987 album Lord of the Highway.^[54]
• Running Wild recorded the song "Billy the Kid" on their 1991 album Blazon Stone.^[55]
• Tom Petty wrote the song "Billy the Kid", released on his 1999 album Echo.^[56]
• Dia Frampton's "Billy the Kid," on the 2011 album Red.^[57]
• Jon Bon Jovi's album, Blaze of Glory, was used as part of the soundtrack for Young Guns II.^[58]
• Ry Cooder recorded the folk song "Billy the Kid", on the album Into The Purple Valley,^[59] with his own melody and instrumental. It was also on Ry Cooder Classics Volume II.^[60]
• The Heavy Horses recorded Billy the Kid's legend in their song "Anyone Can Tell" on their debut album, Murder Ballads & Other Love Songs.

• "Las Cruces Jail", a 2005 song by [[Two Gallants, is about Billy the Kid's imprisonment.

Stage

• Billy the Kid, 1906 Broadway play co-written by Joseph Santley and Walwin (Walter) Woods.^[61]
• Aaron Copland's Billy the Kid, music and ballet that premiered in 1938.^[62]
• Michael McClure's 1965 play The Beard recounts a fictional meeting between Billy the Kid and Jean Harlow.^[63]
• Ben Morales Frost and Richard Hough's 2017 musical, Billy The Kid for the National Youth Music Theatre.
• Michael Ondaatje's 1973 play, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.^[64]

Radio

• The first episode of the Gunsmoke radio series, broadcast on April 2, 1952 and titled "Billy the Kid", purports to tell of Billy's first murder as a runaway boy and credits Matt Dillon with giving him the "Billy the Kid" moniker.^[65]
• The CBS radio series Crime Classics told the story of Billy the Kid in its October 21, 1953 episode (#17) titled "Billy Bonney – Bloodletter". The episode featured Sam Edwards as Billy the Kid and William Conrad as Pat Garrett.^[66]

Television

• Richard Jaeckel played The Kid in the 1954 episode "Billy the Kid" of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century.^[67]
• The NBC series The Tall Man ran from 1960 to 1962, starring Clu Gulager as Billy the Kid and Barry Sullivan as Pat Garrett.^[68]
• Robert Vaughn starred as Billy the Kid in a 1957 episode ("Billy the Kid") of the series Tales of Wells Fargo.
• Robert Blake starred as Billy the Kid in the 1966 Death Valley Days episode "The Kid from Hell's Kitchen".^[69] Tom Heaton also starred as Billy the Kid in season 16, episode "Lost Sheep in Trinidad".
• Robert Walker Jr. starred as Billy the Kid in the 1967 episode "Billy the Kid" of the Irwin Allen science fiction series The Time Tunnel.^[70]
• Billy the Kid is portrayed as a zombie in the 2002 Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XIII"
• American Experience season 24 episode "Billy the Kid", aired on PBS January 9, 2012.^[71]
• Jor-el Vaasborg starred as Billy the Kid in the 2015 National Geographic TV documentary Billy the Kid: New Evidence, narrated by Kevin Costner.
• Derek Chariton starred as Billy the Kid in the 2016 AMC documentary The American West, narrated by Bert Thomas Morris.
• Billy the Kid starring Tom Blyth as the Kid, a television drama series based on the life of Billy the Kid, premiered on April 24, 2022 on Epix. The series is in season 1 and aired 8 episodes.^[72]

Video games

• In the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, Billy the Kid is an Archer-class Servant who debuted as an ally in the 5th chapter of the main story.^[73][74]
• In Call of Juarez: Gunslinger Billy the Kid is one of the allies of the main character Silas Greaves and is rescued by him.^[75][76]

References

1. Jon Tuska (2004). David J. Wishart (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. U of Nebraska Press. p. 446. ISBN 0-8032-4787-7.
2. Margaret K. Reid (2004). Cultural Secrets as Narrative Form: Storytelling in Nineteenth-century America. Ohio State University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-8142-0947-9.
3. J. Frank Dobie; John D. Young (1 August 1998). A Vaquero of the Brush Country: The Life and Times of John D. Young. University of Texas Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-292-78704-9.
4. Joseph Natoli (8 February 2007). This Is a Picture and Not the World: Movies and a Post-9/11 America. State University of New York Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-7914-7028-2.
5. Frederick Nolan (20 October 2014). The Billy the Kid Reader. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-8061-8254-4.
6. Stephen Tatum (1 January 1982). Inventing Billy the Kid: Visions of the Outlaw in America, 1881–1981. University of New Mexico Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-8263-0610-4.
7. Michael Wallis (2007). Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride. W.W. Norton & Company. p. xvi. ISBN 978-0-393-06068-3.
8. Christopher R. Fee, Jeffrey B. Webb, ed. (31 August 2016). American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore (3 Volumes). ABC-CLIO. pp. 145–146. ISBN 978-1-61069-568-8.
9. Richard W. Slatta (2001). The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture. ABC-CLIO. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-57607-151-9.
10. Mike Conroy (2003). 500 Great Comic Book Action Heroes. Barron's. p. 322. ISBN 978-0-7641-2581-2.
11. Jack Spicer (1959). Billy the Kid. Enkidu Surrogate. ASIN B0006DZHUY. Retrieved January 30, 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
12. Urrero Peña, Guzmán. "El bandido adolescente". Centro Virtual Cervantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 January 2019.
13. Van Wart, Alice. "The Evolution of Form in Machael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and Coming Through Slaughter". Western University. from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
14. Ore, Rebecca (1991). The Illegal Rebirth of Billy The Kid. ISBN 978-0812506723.
15. "Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry – Reviews, Discussions, Bookclubs, Lists". from the original on December 24, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
16. Hagy, Alyson (November 18, 2016). "Billy the Kid: The Novel". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on December 12, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
17. Airy, Helen (1993). Whatever Happened to Billy the Kid. ISBN 0865341850.
18. "Billy the Kid – Along the Ancient Way".
19. . SilentEra.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
20. THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY (1911) – Biograph, D.W. Griffith – YouTube
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22. "Billy The Kid Returns". from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
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34. "The Boy from Oklahoma (1954)". Turner Classic Movies. from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
35. "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) – Overview". Turner Classic Movies. from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
36. "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula". Rotten Tomatoes. from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
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38. "Dirty Little Billy – overview". Turner Classic Movies. from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
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40. "Young Guns (1988) – overview". Turner Classic Movies. from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
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43. "Purgatory (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. from the original on April 21, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
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45. "Birth of a Legend: Billy the Kid & the Lincoln County War (2011)". Retrieved February 6, 2016.
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47. MacMillan, (1934), p. 137
48. MacMillan, (1938), pp. 140–141. From Jim Marby, recorded in 1911, Library of Congress E659098.
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52. "Billy The Kid (Album Version) The Charlie Daniels Band From the Album High Lonesome". Retrieved February 6, 2016.
53. Dillon, Charlotte. "Chris LeDoux – Haywire". AllMusic. from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
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56. . Metro Lyrics. Archived from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
57. . Metro Lyrics. Archived from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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59. 1972 Reprise K44142
60. Japan 1992 P-Vine PCD 2541
61. . The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York) April 12, 1907. April 12, 1907. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016.
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63. "First NYC major revival of 'The Beard' by Michael McClure". New York Theatre Wise. from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
64. Weeks, Jerome (January 1998). "Outlaw By Ondaatje". American Theatre. 15 (1): 12.
65. Gunsmoke radio show "Billy the Kid", first broadcast May 26, 1952
66. . The Digital Deli. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
67. Hutton, Paul Andrew (April 1, 2007). "Dreamscape Desperado: Who remembers Billy the Kid? – "Cinematic Excess"". True West Magazine. from the original on February 7, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
68. "The Tall Man – NBC (ended 1962)". TV.com. from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
69. "The Kid from Hell's Kitchen". TV.com. from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
70. "The Time Tunnel (TV show) – Season 1, Episode 22 Billy the Kid". TV Guide. from the original on July 29, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
71. . PBS Video. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
72. Andreeva, Nellie (May 4, 2021). "'Billy the Kid' Series From Michael Hirst Ordered By Epix". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
73. Dennison, Kara (March 8, 2018). ""Fate/Grand Order" Explores Early America in Fifth Singularity". Crunchyroll. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
74. Green, Scott (March 9, 2017). "Hold Onto Your Breastplate, A Male King Arthur Has Joined "Fate/Grand Order"". Crunchyroll. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
75. Savage, Phil (March 7, 2013). "Call of Juarez: Gunslinger teaser shows the Wild West's reflective side". PC Gamer. Future US, Inc. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
76. Rath, Robert (July 25, 2015). "History and Legend in Call of Juarez: Gunslinger". Escapist Magazine. Defy Media, LLC. Addicting Games network. Retrieved March 10, 2018.

External links

• Billy the Kid : The Bibliography of a Legend, by Jeff Dykes
• Billy the Kid, a Bio-Bibliography, by Jon Tuska
• Billy the Kid, WorldCat Identities