Set in New Mexico during the 1870s, The Tall Man told fictionalised stories of the adventures of two real-life characters, Sheriff Pat Garrett (Barry Sullivan) and William H. Bonney (Clu Gulager) – aka Billy the Kid – a youthful gunfighter with a penchant for getting himself into trouble.
Billy and Pat (whose honesty and forthrightness had earned him the nickname “The Tall Man”) were close friends despite the fact that they were often on opposite sides of the law.
Pat looked upon Billy as a younger brother or son but knew in the back of his mind that they would eventually be forced into a showdown.
Although he was pretty handy with a gun, Pat regarded it as a tool only to be used in an emergency where there was no other alternative.
Billy, on the other hand, looked at his gun as the great equaliser, compensating for his inferiority in size, strength, or intelligence.
His criminal activities kept bringing him and Pat closer to the day of reckoning which, although never shown on the series, culminated in Pat killing Billy.
The series aired on NBC between September 1960 and September 1962.
Sheriff Pat Garrett
Barry Sullivan William Bonney (Billy the Kid)
Clu Gulager
