By Frank Roberts

Sometimes it seems like Hollywood’s Wild West is a lot like Old McDonald’s farm — here a billykid, there a billykid, everywhere a billykid.”

Maybe his maw called him “William the Child,” but history will ever remember legendary outlaw William Henry McCarty Jr. (a.k.a. William H. Bonney) as “Billy the Kid.”

After his role in the death of a New Mexico sheriff in 1878, Billy the Kid was a wanted man until he was tracked down and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881 at the age of 21.

Since then, he’s been wanted on the big screen eight different times.

Unless you were cooped up in a cave, without a movie screen handy — especially if you were fond of western flicks, you saw The Kid quite often.

In no particular order, here is how it happened. Back in ’88 — er, 1988 — Emilio Estevez portrayed the outlaw in “Young Guns.” There, he was seen as a hotshot hothead.

In 1968, on the big screen and, several years later on the small screen, Paul Newman portrayed him as a hooligan. The movie was “The Left Handed Gun,” though historians have since concluded that Billy the Kid was right-handed.

In 1989, Val Kilmer was in a flick, aptly titled “Billy the Kid.” Country singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson co-starred in “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.” Second billing?

Side note — I interviewed Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar, and most of the conversation had to do with politics and the world situation.

Back to the Kid. Geoffrey Deuel was BK in “Chisum.” That was in 1970. Then, in 1990, in “Back To the Future III,” the wondrous Michael J. Fox, as Marty McFly, did his shootin’ in an arcade. In 1989, in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” Dan Shor was a stoned, hairy Kid; and B-movie western enthusiasts saw Johnny Mack Brown portraying the outlaw in another movie titled “Billy the Kid,” the title later appropriated by Val Kilmer.

Chuck Courtney found BK fighting a nasty land baron in — get this — “Billy the Kid vs. Dracula.” That was in 1963. In 1965, Billy was batty in a real must-see. Johnny Ginger was the outlaw in a title that thrilled English teachers everywhere — “The Outlaws Is Coming.” It was a trio this time — not The Andrews Sisters, but The Three Stooges. Ain’t that a poke in the eye? Perhaps they used deadly crowbars, instead of guns.

The notorious outlaw co-starred with the notorious Jane Russell in Howard Hughes’ initially banned movie “The Outlaw.”

The 1943 flick coupled the big guns with “big” Jane. Jack Buetel had the lead role, the start of a movie career that went downhill with the speed of a six-shooter.

Lest you be offended by the posters advertising her — er — stock in trade, be it known that she started the “Hollywood Christian Group” and held Bible studies in her home. She also appeared on the TV show, “Praise the Lord,” on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. She recorded an album of hymns and, a decade ago, at the age of 79, described herself thus: “I am a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist.”

She co-starred in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” with Marilyn Monroe, who said, “Jane tried to convert me (to religion) and I tried to introduce her to Freud.”

During a 60-year career spanning newspapers, radio and television, Frank Roberts has been there and done that. Today, he’s doing it in retirement from North Carolina, but he continues to keep an eye set on Suffolk and an ear cocked on country music. Email him at froberts73@embarqmail.com.