Actor Robert Blake has died of heart disease at the age of 89. Blake passed away on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles according to the Associated Press.
Blake was best known on screen for his Emmy-winning role as an undercover cop in the popular 1970s TV series “Baretta,” and off screen for the infamous 2005 trial following the 2001 murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley.
Blake was acquitted of the murder charge, as well as of one count of soliciting murder, in said trial. Later that year in a civil trial, he was found liable for the wrongful death of his wife and ordered to pay her family $30 million.
Blake’s most famous film role was in Richard Brooks’ 1967 adaptation of Truman Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood” in which he and Scott Wilson played the young killers of an entire Kansas family.
Other films included “Bridal Suite,” “I Love You Again,” “Screaming Eagles,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “PT 109,” “Electra Glide in Blue,” “Blood Feud,” “Money Train” along with small but memorable roles in John Huston’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and David Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. He also had guest starring roles in numerous TV series in the 50s and 60s, especially westerns.
Blake is survived by his children with his former wife, actress Sondra Kerr.
