Robert Blake, a mainstay in Hollywood for many years who later turned a supply of even wider fascination when he was tried for the homicide of his second spouse, has died. In keeping with the Related Press “a assertion launched on behalf of his niece, Noreen Austin, mentioned Blake died from coronary heart illness, surrounded by household at residence in Los Angeles.” Blake was 89 years outdated.
Born Michael James Gubitosi in 1933, Blake was a toddler actor who appeared in a number of Little Rascals shorts, and had a job within the basic Humphrey Bogart drama The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. After serving within the army, Blake returned to performing; as an grownup, his onscreen breakthrough got here in 1967’s In Chilly Blood, the movie adaptation of the basic Truman Capote ebook. Blake performed assassin Perry Smith:
Within the Nineteen Seventies, Blake turned a TV star because the title character on the cop present Baretta, which ran for 4 profitable seasons on ABC. Blake received an Emmy for his work on the collection.
Blake’s profession slowed significantly within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, though he did make an especially memorable look — in what could be his last movie position — as “The Thriller Man” of David Lynch’s Misplaced Freeway.
In later years, although, Blake was much more well-known as a result of in 2002 he was charged with the homicide of his spouse, Bonny Lee Bakley. The incident occurred in Might of 2001; Bakley was shot within the head outdoors a restaurant. Blake mentioned he was contained in the restaurant on the time of the killing, coincidentally reclaiming a gun that he had by chance left inside — a gun which police later examined and decided was not the weapon used within the homicide. Blake was in the end acquitted of the costs in 2005, and at all times insisted upon his innocence, however in a civil go well with later that very same yr he was discovered accountable for Bakley’s dying and ordered him to pay $30 million to Bakley’s household. (Consequently, Blake was pressured to file for chapter.)
In different phrases, Blake leaves behind a really sophisticated legacy — together with some excellent motion pictures. (In case you’ve by no means seen the motion drama Electra Glide in Blue or the buddy cop film Busting with Blake starring reverse Elliott Gould, each are undoubtedly value testing.)
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