1973
Acts in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Dylan took a small role as a character called Alias in Sam Peckinpah's western, filmed in Mexico, and wrote its score.
No photograph or film of it is free to use; this card stands in for one.
The film starred James Coburn as Pat Garrett and Kris Kristofferson as Billy the Kid, and was shot in Durango, Mexico, in a production troubled by clashes between Peckinpah and the studio. Dylan's part was small and enigmatic, a drifter who attaches himself to Billy's gang. His music did more. The soundtrack album, released in 1973, is mostly instrumental, but it includes "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", which became a hit and one of his most covered songs, later recorded by Eric Clapton and Guns N' Roses among many others. MGM released a cut version of the film that Peckinpah disowned, and fuller versions appeared later. Soon after, Dylan left Columbia for a time and signed with Asylum Records.