Billy the Kid Movies

Billy the Kid, also known by the pseudonym William H Bonney, was born Henry McCarty on 17 September or 23 November 1859. An outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, he killed eight men before he was shot and killed at the age of 21 by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner on 14 July 1881.

Billy the Kid remains one of the most famous and notorious figures from the era, whose life and likeness have been frequently dramatised in Western movies, usually fancifully.

Billy the Kid Movies

Billy the Kid (1911), with Edith Storey as Billy the Kid. The sheriff, Uncle Billy (Ralph Ince) never knew that orphan Billy the Kid was a girl and brought her up as a young cowboy. This silent Western film, directed by Laurence Trimble for Vitagraph Studios, is very loosely based on the life of Billy the Kid. Rather happily, it is believed to be a lost film.

Billy the Kid (1930), with Johnny Mack Brown.

Billy the Kid Returns (1938), with Roy Rogers.

Billy the Kid film series (1940–46) spanned 42 movies – six starring Bob Steele (starting with Billy the Kid Outlawed in 1940) and the remaining 36 starring Buster Crabbe (starting with Billy the Kid Wanted in 1941). All 42 films in the series are released by Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation and directed by Sam Newfield, America’s most prolific sound film director.

Bob Steele films as Billy the Kid: Billy the Kid Outlawed (1940), Billy the Kid in Texas (1940), Billy the Kid’s Gun Justice (1940), Billy the Kid’s Range War (1941), Billy the Kid’s Fighting Pals (1941) and Billy the Kid in Santa Fe (1941).

Steele then left PRC to return to Republic Pictures. The next 13 star Buster Crabbe as Billy the Kid, and the final 23 feature Crabbe as the same character, renamed Billy Carson. All 42 films feature Al St John as Billy’s sidekick Fuzzy Jones.

The films were shot in 10 to 12 days for an average cost of $25,000.

Billy the Kid (1941), with Robert Taylor.

The Outlaw (1943), with Jack Buetel.