The legend of Billy the Kid has been told in dime novels, books, plays, songs, poems, and most of all, in film and as I mentioned more than once on this site, no other individual has been portrayed in more films than Billy the Kid. In 1926, Walter Noble Burns wrote a biography on the Kid called The Saga of Billy the Kid, which became a bestseller. Though based mostly on his legend, it was this book that made the Kid popular with moviemakers; there was conspiracy, corruption, romance, and shoot’em up action. What a great plot for screenwriters! Because Billy the Kid is a man of many faces, movies can portray him in any form they desire, but yet at the same time, stay within the spirit of his legend. He could be a villain but also a Robin Hood-like hero, a lover and a killer and of course an underdog -and who doesn't like rooting for the underdog. Billy the Kid movies were popular with both young and old, male and female audiences. For more about this, check out this archive article I wrote for the 2003 Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang Gazette:

Billy the Kid Goes Hollywood   

Below is a filmography of Billy the Kid movies and the actors who portrayed him.  Of course, all these movies are a far cry of telling the true story of Billy the Kid, and most are downright ridiculous, but after all, they're not documentaries...these films were meant to entertain. What I find to be most amusing, is that most of the actors who played the teenage outlaw were middle age men (or even older) such as Emilio Estevez, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Taylor, Johnny Mack Brown, and others.

Below is a list of films that are in order of the release year and includes the name of the actor starring as Billy the Kid.

MOVIES:

Billy the Kid (1911) Directed by Laurence Trimble / Starring Tefft Johnson

Billy the Bandit (1916) Directed by John Steppling / Starring Billy Mason

Billy the Kid (1930) Directed by King Vidor / Starring Johnny Mack Brown

Billy the Kid Returns (1938) Directed by Joseph Kane / Starring Roy Rogers

Billy the Kid Outlawed (1940) Directed by Peter Stewart / Starring Bob Steele

Billy the Kid in Texas (1940) Directed by Peter Stewart / Starring Bob Steele

Billy the Kid’s Gun Justice (1940) Directed by Peter Stewart / Starring Bob Steele

Billy the Kid’s Range War (1941) Directed by Peter Stewart / Starring Bob Steele

Billy the Kid’s Fighting Pals (1941) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Bob Steele

Billy the Kid (1941) Directed by David Miller / Starring Robert Taylor

Billy the Kid in Santa Fe (1941) Directed by Sherman Scot t / Starring Bob Steele

Billy the Kid Wanted (1941) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

Billy the Kid’s Round Up (1941) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

Billy the Kid Trapped (1942) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

Billy the Kid’s Smoking Guns (1942) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

Billy the Kid in Law and Order (1942) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

Sheriff of Sage Valley (1942) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

West of Tombstone (1942) Directed by Howard Bretherton / Starring Gordan Demain

The Mysterious Rider (1942) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

The Kid Rides Again (1943) Directed by Sherman Scott / Starring Buster Crabbe

The Outlaw (1943) Directed by Howard Hughes / Starring Jack Beutel

Fugitive of the Plains (1943) Directed by Sam Newfield / Starring Buster Crabbe

Western Cyclone (1943) Directed by Sam Newfield / Starring Buster Crabbe

The Renegade (1943) Directed by Sam Newfield / Starring Buster Crabbe

Cattle Stampede (1943) Directed by Sam Newfield / Starring Buster Crabbe

Blazing Frontier (1943) Directed by Sam Newfield / Starring Buster Crabbe

Alias Billy the Kid (1946) Directed by Thomas Carr / Starring Sunset Carson?

Four Faces West (1948) Directed by Alfred E. Green / Starring Joel McCrea

Son of Billy the Kid (1949) Directed by Ray Taylor / Starring George Baxter

The Kid from Texas (1950) Directed by Kurt Neulmann / Starring Audie Murphy

I Shot Billy the Kid (1950) Directed by William Berke / Starring Don Barry

Captive of Billy the Kid (1952) Directed by Fred C. Bannon / the Kid is only mentioned

The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954) Directed by William Castle / Starring Scott Brady

The Boy from Oklahoma (1954) Directed by Michael Curtiz / Starring Tyler MacDuff

Strange Lady in Town (1955) Directed by Mervyn LeRoy / Starring Nick Adams

Last of the Desperadoes (1956) Directed by Sam Newfield / the Kid is mentioned -film is about Pat Garrett

The Parson and The Outlaw (1957) Directed by Oliver Drake / Starring Anthony Dexter

Badman’s Country (1958) Directed by Fred F. Sears / the Kid is only mentioned

The Left-Handed Gun (1958) Directed by Arthur Penn / Starring Paul Newman

One-Eye Jacks (1961) Directed by and starring Marlon Brando (his character is based on the Kid)

Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) Directed by William Beaudine / Starring Chuck Courtney

Chisum (1970) Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen / Starring Geoffrey Deuel

Dirty Little Billy (1972) Directed by Stan Dragoti / Starring Michael J. Pollard

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) Directed by Sam Peckinpah / Starring Kris Kristofferson

The 1st Notch (1974) Directed by Gil Ward / Starring Jason Ward

Young Guns (1988) Directed by Christopher Caine / Starring Emilio Estevez

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) Directed by Stephen Herek / Starring Dan Shor

Young Guns II (1990) Directed by Geoff Murphy / Starring Emilio Estevez

TELEVISION:

The Death of Billy the Kid (1955) Directed by Gore Vidal / Starring Paul Newman

Go West, Young Girl (1978) Directed by Alan J. Levi / Starring Richard Jaeckel

Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid  (1989) Directed by William A. Graham / Starring Val Kilmer  

Purgatory (1999) Directed by Ulrich Edel / Starring Donnie Wahlberg
 

The grand total is 52 featured movies or films. This doesn't include the numerous TV shows series and documentaries.

Aside from movies, Billy the Kid was also portrayed in a handful of  TV show series such as Tall Man, Colt .45, Maverick, Stories of the Centuries, and others. Billy the Kid was also portrayed in cartoons, such as Deputy Dawg, Lucky Luke, and The Simpsons.

 

The Best and the Worst of Billy the Kid movies

As we have just seen, there were a heck of a lot of movies made about Billy the Kid.  Here is my list of favorites and least favorites.

     My favorites (from best to okay):

  1) Young Guns  The movie mixed the facts and myths together rather well and it was this movie that sparked  Billy the Kid fever for a new generation (me included). Although, Young Guns does portrayed Billy the Kid inaccurately as an egotistical punk who laughs heartily every time he shoots someone, I do admit it's probably the best movie made on Billy the Kid to-date. For more, check out my web page History vs. Young Guns.

  2) Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid  A low budget made-for-TV movie, and not the most exciting, but out of all the Billy the Kid movies, it's the most accurate. Val Kilmer's portrayal of Billy the Kid was a bit dull (although he was great as Doc Holiday in Tombstone). The movie stuck within the facts fairly well, but would occasionally go off on the myth trail. All in all, it was a decent movie.

  3) Young Guns 2  Not as good as the first and less accurate. Worse of all, it reopened the Brushy Bill Roberts debate and converted many "believers." It also got off track with the chronology order of events.

  4) The Outlaw  A completely fictional story about Billy the Kid and Doc Holiday. The two outlaws have an unusual love-hate friendship; when they're not arguing over a favorite horse or who has whose tobacco, their fighting over the same girl. In the end Doc is shot and killed by Pat Garrett, but the Kid passes Doc's grave off as his and rides off into the sunset with the horse and the girl. This movie is not at all historically accurate, but it is an entertaining western movie and worth the watch.

  5) Billy the Kid  Since this is an old B-western, it's quite corny by today's standards, but still good nonetheless. Johnny Mack Brown plays Billy the Kid in this film that was based on the Walter Noble Burns book, The Saga of Billy the Kid.

       Now for my least favorites (from worse to okay):

   1) Dirty Little Billy  By far the worst ever!! It has nothing to do with our Billy the Kid, fact or myth! It wasn't even a decent Western movie. In this one Billy the Kid is portrayed as a total moronic wimp and coward, who follows a pimp as his role model, along with the guy's prostitute girlfriend. The story is mostly about the crooked low-life pimp and Billy is nothing more than his sidekick shadowing him like a dog. Stay away from this one!

   2) Billy the Kid  The real Billy the Kid was called "KID" because of his youth and boyish appearance, but in this film he is portrayed by a very rough-looking worn out and aging Robert Taylor.  It portrays Pat Garrett as a lawman whose conflicted about hunting his outlaw friend Billy the Kid. The story has Garrett as the protagonist hero and the Kid as the unlikeable antagonist. Sounds like a simple enough plot, but the movie was boring and dragged. I could barely sit through it. Not only was it a poor Billy the Kid movie, but a poor western movie altogether.

   3) Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid  This one seems to be a popular one for the older generation, but for me, I didn't like it at all. Not only does it have another older middle age man playing the teenage outlaw, but the movie begins with the capture of Billy the Kid at Stinking Springs and then jumps quickly to his escape from the Lincoln jail. The film completely leaves out the Lincoln County War and what made Billy the Kid who he was and why. The movie is all about Pat Garrett hunting down and killing the Kid after his escape from the courthouse jail. In this movie Billy the Kid is such a ruthless coldblooded fiend that you're glad to see him get killed in the end. The only thing I found amusing in this whole movie was Bob Dylan's goofy character.

   4) The Left-Handed Gun  I loved him as Butch Cassidy, but Paul Newman's portrayal of Billy the Kid was weak. In this film Billy the Kid is a irrational unstable nutcase - attributes rather opposite to the genuine Billy the Kid. The movie begins with the Kid, a saddle tramp, getting hired by John Tunstall and befriends Charlie Bowdre and Tom O'Folliard. Later that same day, Tunstall gets killed. So Billy, who barely knew his employer, loses it and goes on a killing spree with his two new friends (Tom and Charlie). For a film that boasted its accuracy, it was disappointing, but as a western it was a decent movie.

   5) Chisum  An good western movie, but like the rest, it's off track concerning the history of Billy the Kid. Once again the Kid is portrayed as a trigger-happy nut and the sole killer for the Tunstall side during the Lincoln County War.  During the big battle at the Tunstall store (historically it was really McSween's house) John Chisum, played by John Wayne, and Pat Garrett come to the rescue and saves the Regulators. The movie ends with Billy the Kid killing his old friend-turn-enemy Jesse Evans and then rides out of town chasing after Sheriff Nodeen (should really be Sheriff George Peppin) who hightailed it out of town. Pat Garrett is then appointed new county sheriff and is last seen in the movie at the Chisum ranch washing dishes with Billy's gal, Sally Chisum. It's funny...Pat Garrett and John Chisum, who had nothing to do with the battle at McSween's house or fighting along side the Regulators in real life, come out the heroes in the movie and the Kid as the unreasonable crazed killer. Not a good Billy the Kid movie, but it's a good John Wayne Western.

  

 Fun Billy the Kid Movie Facts

Jack Buetel played Billy the Kid in “The Outlaw” and would also play Bob Younger in “Best of the Badmen.”

Bruce Cabot played Cole Younger in “Best of the Badmen” and years later he would played Sheriff Brady in “Chisum.”

Robert Wilke played Jim Younger in “Best of the Badmen” and a gunfighter in “The Kid from Texas” starring Audie Murphy as Billy the Kid.

Paul Newman played Billy the Kid in “The Left-handed Gun” and would also portray other Old West legends such as, Butch Cassidy in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Buffalo Bill Cody in “Buffalo Bill and the Indians,” and Judge Roy Bean in “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.”

James Coburn played Pat Garrett in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" and John Chisum in "Young Guns 2."

John Wayne played John Chisum in "Chisum" and his real-life son, Patrick Wayne, played Pat Garrett in "Young Guns"

Actor Terry O'Quinn played Alex McSween in "Young Guns" and the Mayor John Clum in "Tombstone.”

Actor Val Kilmer played Billy the Kid in "Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid" and Doc Holiday in "Tombstone."

Gore Vidal wrote the play version of “The Left-handed Gun."

Actor Richard Jaeckel portrayed Billy the Kid in the TV series "Stories of the Centuries," Jessie Evans in "Chisum," and Kip McKinney in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." In an episode of "The Tall Man" (The Grudge Fight) Jaeckel played a character named Denver, a rival-turn-friend of Billy the Kid's (played by Clu Gulager).

Charles Heston played rancher Henry Hooker in “Tombstone” and Judah Ben-Hur in “Ben-Hur” which was a best seller novel written by Lew Wallace. Of course, we know that Lew Wallace was governor of New Mexico in 1879-1881 and had betrayed Billy the Kid. But what is not commonly known is as a young teenager, Billy the Kid had worked briefly for Henry Hooker in Arizona. It’s believed that the salary Billy earned from working for Hooker enabled him to buy the gun that would kill Windy Cahill.

Harry Carey Jr. played Ben Dooley in “Billy the Kid vs. Dracula” and Marshall Fred White in “Tombstone” and was narrator/host of the documentary “Legends of the West: Billy the Kid.”

Donnie Wahlberg played Billy the Kid along with Randy Quaid who portrayed Doc Holiday in “Purgatory.” Coincidentally, years earlier Randy’s younger brother, Dennis Quaid, also portrayed Doc Holiday in “Wyatt Earp.”

Lastly, Buster Crabbe portrayed Billy the Kid 13 times from 1941 -1943. Bob Steele portrayed Billy the Kid 6 times from 1940-1941, and Emilio Estevez portrayed Billy the Kid twice (1988 and 1990).