Black Sails built its universe from several sources: real-world pirate history, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and the imagination of the show's writers. For history buffs, it's great to see the golden age of piracy in full swing, and for movie nerds, it's a lot of fun to see a work of iconic fiction treated as a historical source.
The show's characters come from the same 3 sources, with real-world pirates like Anne Bonny, original characters like Mr. Scott, and Treasure Island characters such as John Silver, Captain Flint, and, of course, Billy Bones. His role in the original novel was small but significant, and he remains one of the most iconic characters. Played in Black Sails by Tom Hopper, the character has shown up in numerous adaptations and helped build the traditional Hollywood Pirate.
The Enigma
In Treasure Island, the story opens with Billy Bones - the Billy Bones Tom Hopper's version is destined to become - as he turns up in a coastal town with a mysterious sea-chest, looking for a place to stay that looks out over the water.
He finds such a place in the Admiral Benbow Inn, where he asks to be referred to simply a 'Captain' and pays a generous deposit for his room, before spending his days alone out on the cliffs, staring out to sea. When his deposit runs out he fails to pay up and intimidates his landlord into leaving him be.
Personality
Pirate stories always bring a variety of colorful characters, and many of these characters are prone to a drink or two. Billy Bones is the poster boy for drunk pirates: stern, unapproachable ex-navy badass when sober; embarrassing short-tempered fool when he's drunk.
The patrons of the Benbow Inn get to know the latter, drawn to him by his notoriety and tails of the high sea, with some calling him "a real old salt", before being pushed away by his obnoxious singing and shouting that quickly becomes bullying when challenged.
Small Screen Tom Hopper
Before Black Sails, English actor Tom Hopper was already no stranger to period fiction or iconic TV shows. He played Sir Percival in Merlin from 2010-2012 and joined the cast of the world-beating and ultimately world-disappointing Game of Thrones in 2017 as dragon chow Dickon Tarly.
He also appeared in Dr. Who, Casualty, Kingdom, Doctors, Good Cop, Barbarians Rising, and most recently joined The Umbrella Academy in 2019 as Luther Hargreeves.
The One-Legged Man
While he continues to stiff his landlord at the Benbow, Billy pays his landlord's son, Jim Hawkins, fourpence a month to look out for "a seafaring man with one leg", shedding some light on his looking out to see and lending some gravitas to the introduction of Long John Silver, though he eventually gives up and stops paying for this service with no payoff. The Black Sails prequel makes this opening even cooler.
Of course, if you were to walk into a fictional pirate bar today and ask if anyone knew anyone with one leg all their hands would shoot straight up, but this is back before Long John Silver and Robert Louis Stevenson managed to make wooden legs cool.
Big Screen Tom Hopper
Tom Hopper's screen career began in 2007, but as well as quickly finding success in TV he started to break into film in several features including Saxon, Tormented, Cold, and Knights of Badassdom before his memorable turn as Asbjorn in 2014's Northmen - A Viking Saga.
He's since appeared in Kill Ratio and I Feel Pretty and 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate, and has 4 movies currently in production.
Alcoholism
Billy Bones was a hardened adventurer, spending over 20 years as a pirate, and though involved in some shady doings, it was the booze that ultimately destroyed him.
When you're on a pirate ship or ransacking something with your besties, the drinking and loud singing make sense, but when we meet Billy Bones in Treasure Island he is degrading, cutting himself off from any real social interaction and drinking himself into oblivion as he awaits the light at the end of the tunnel. It also explains the stroke.
More Billy Bones
As well as being a popular historical setting, Treasure Island shows up in all sorts of pop culture, and Billy Bones is often featured. As well as straight adaptations the character appeared in Muppet Treasure Island and showed up as a tortoise lizard alien in Disney's Treasure Planet.
He also appeared as an animated "one-legged" cat in Dōbutsu Takarajima (Animal Treasure Island). Songs that reference the character include "The Tomahawk Kid" by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band "Time For Heroes" by The Libertines and Elton John's "Billy Bones and the White Bird".
The Black Dog
Less than a year after his arrival, Billy Bones is ironically visited by someone named Black Dog, a rough-looking individual with 2 fingers missing. Black Dog confronts Bones, they argue, and things naturally turn to a swordfight. Bones manages to drive the wounded dog away, but then suffers a stroke that almost kills him.
The Dr. attending him discovers his real name and story after finding his name tattoed on his person. He warns Bones that the drink will kill him, but Bones fails to heed this warning.
Other Actors Who've Played Bones
Other actors to have taken on the Treasure Island character include Oliver Reed, Patrick Bergin, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, Michael Elphick, Herschell Mayal, Lionel Barrymore, Finlay Currie, Lionel Stander, Leonid Markov, Dante Maggio, Jack Watson, Ryo Kurosawa, Takeshi Aono, and Justin Jones.
Billy Connelly did a memorable turn as Bones in Muppet Treasure Island, which also included Tim Curry's iconic Long John Silver.
The Black Spot
After the stroke, Billy becomes mentally and physically weaker and is caught singing the innocent songs of his youth. He also comes clean to the Dr. about his life as a pirate. Soon after the incident, a blind pirate who goes by 'Pew' shows up at the inn.
His mere presence seems to terrify Bones, and when Pew hands Billy the dreaded black spot (a circular piece of card colored black), he suffers another stroke on the spot and dies. The omen the black spot represents becomes clear when a ruthless gang of pirates ransacks the town.