Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Very much a supporting part, but the experience led to a lifelong friendship with Bob Dylan, with whom Harry Dean Stanton bonded – and sang – on Sam Peckinpah’s fraught production. Marrying Peckinpah’s renegade style with a fatalistic worldview, this riff on Western legend, American mythology, and the clash between notions of freedom and an emerging ‘civilisation’ is one of the director’s finest works. Unburdened by solemnity despite the gravity of its subject matter, the film features a mesmerising score by Dylan that is perhaps more notable than his acting. Stanton appears in a small, but memorable role.