Billy The Kid
Season 1 M-Net (*101) 21:30 Drama
At age 16, Henry McCarty, who’s better known as William H Bonney and Billy The Kid, earned a reputation as one of the US’s greatest outlaw in the Old West during the 1880s. He reportedly murdered eight men in the Lincoln County War, including a sheriff, before he was fatally shot at 21. And his life is being retold in biopic drama series Billy The Kid, with British actor Tom Blyth as the notorious gangster. “There have been many variations of Billy and we’re humanising this man, who many regard as a psychopathic killer,” explains Tom, who researched Billy’s youth in the Irish slums of New York. “As an immigrant, Billy searched for a better life. He was promised the American dream which plenty of people still search for.”
The 27-year-old moved to New 1
York to study at the famous performing arts school Juilliard. “I turned 21 and had a bit of money for my birthday, and I thought, ‘Let me put it towards a flight and an audition.’ Soon after, I was accepted and on the plane,” says Tom. While he has lots of work to his 2 name, Tom considers his 2021 biographical movie role as Glen Byam Shaw in Benediction as his breakthrough. “To play a stage actor as well known as Glen was a dream. Those roles come along once in a career and it’s my favourite.” To play Billy, Tom moved to New 3 Mexico where Billy lived and was killed, revealing that he’d sit by Billy’s gravesite and research his character.
Tom got into acting as a tribute to 4 his late dad Gavin who was a producer on iconic UK soapies Coronation Street and Emmerdale until his death in 2008 from lymphomic cancer.
To stay fit, Tom does cycling, 5 mountain biking and rock climbing, although he always wears a harness.