Robert Blake death

ROBERT Blake, who starred in Baretta & Lost Highway has died aged 89 from heart disease on Thursday, according to his niece.The controversial acto.

"But it was in the film IN COLD BLOOD, directed by Richard Brooks (CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, ELMER GANTRY, LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR) that Blake cemented his place in movie history. "As an adult he was in great films and did great TV. His tv series BARETTA was a hit for ABC, with Baretta’s cockatoo Fred as his sidekick. My career was stalled out,” he said in the AP interview. It's complicated." He has died at 89 and so I'm celebrating his work, which was consistently good. A second added: "May he RIP. Great actor, let’s remember that." I had something to live for.” My life was on hold. Blake's parents eventually started a song and dance act. It’s complicated.”

An Emmy-winning actor whose career triumphs were later overshadowed by a trial in which he was acquitted of killing his wife, Robert Blake has died at age ...

He appeared in the series for five years and changed his name to Bobby Blake. My career was stalled out,” he said in the AP interview. He made only a handful of screen appearances after the mid-1980s; his last project was in David Lynch’s “Lost Highway,” released in 1997. His career peaked with the 1975-78 TV cop series, “Baretta.” He starred as a detective who carried a pet cockatoo on his shoulder and was fond of disguises. His father, an Italian immigrant and his mother, an Italian American, wanted their three children to succeed in show business. According to his niece, Blake had spent his recent years “enjoying jazz music, playing his guitar, reading poetry, and watching many Hollywood Classic films.” Blake won a 1975 Emmy for his portrayal of Tony Baretta, although behind the scenes the show was wracked by disputes involving the temperamental star. He later admitted to struggles with alcohol and drug addiction in his early life. It was an ignominious finale for a life lived in the spotlight from childhood. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court. Many remembered him not as the rugged, dark-haired star of “Baretta,” but as a spectral, white-haired murder defendant. The daughter he and Bakley had together, Rose Lenore, was raised by other relatives and went for years without seeing Blake, until they spoke in 2019.

Prolific actor Robert Blake, who played tough guy characters on TV and film, is dead at 89.

Blake did not testify in his own defense, but the stuntman who testified against him had a history of drug abuse and Blake was subsequently acquitted. He [was accused](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi_dIcXyxT4) of arranging her murder-by-hire with a former stuntman he'd met on the Baretta set. "He and I spent parts of virtually every day together over the year I lived in LA working on his case. Blake's last film credit was in [David Lynch](https://www.upi.com/topic/David_Lynch/)'s acclaimed film Lost Highway in 1997. By then, Blake had established himself in Hollywood and continued to work steadily throughout the years. His first role was in the Our Gang movie shorts playing Mickey, one of the Little Rascals. [Truman Capote](https://www.upi.com/topic/Truman_Capote/)'s book about a real-life murder in Kansas. [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/09/entertainment/robert-blake-death/index.html), saying the actor died peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Thursday. The family moved to Los Angeles where Blake ultimately found the most success, changing his name in 1942. In 1995, he was in Money Train with [Jennifer Lopez](https://www.upi.com/topic/Jennifer_Lopez/) and [Woody Harrelson](https://www.upi.com/topic/Woody_Harrelson/). In 2005, Blake was acquitted of those charges but found liable in a civil suit brought by her children. Blake was best known for acting on TV series Baretta, in which he played New York City undercover cop Tony Baretta.

Robert Blake, a child actor famous for his role as TV's "Baretta" but whose legacy was tarnished by suspicion over his wife's murder, has died at 89.

I was nuts when I was away from the camera." "When I go, I don't mind going," he said. "When I croak, I hope I do it fast, clean and get it over with," he said. "Why would I marry her if I was going to kill her?" "I almost died" from the shock, Blake said. In the interview, Blake recalled his "lunatic father" moving the family to Los Angeles when he was 4. "I never was a good husband. I was crazy," he said. "She hated what was in her stomach because it belonged to Tony, and Tony had deserted her," Blake said. "I thought I was doing God's work. "And I said, 'Man, I can say that! He revealed during an early '90s appearance on "The Joan Rivers Show" how he earned a speaking role for the series he appeared on from 1939 to 1944.

Robert Blake's daughter previously said she didn't want to know if the actor shot and killed her mother Bonny Lee Bakley in 2001.

"It was easier to talk to friends than family," she said. [CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER](https://www.foxnews.com/newsletters?cmpid=fnfirstnl) "And then one of them is just a normal teenage girl." "It was a lot to handle," she told People magazine at the time. It was kind of a traumatic childhood at that point." "It feels useless to have an opinion about it," she added.

A 1970s TV icon, Robert Blake was found not guilty of killing his wife but later was found liable in civil court.

He wanted to direct an action picture and got the band to invest in the production. He served his country, even if we can’t quite figure out exactly how and why he ended up in the Army. He became the 10th husband of Bonnie Lee Bakley in November 2000 after DNA tests proved he was the father of their infant daughter Rosie. Blake was eventually arrested for her murder but was acquitted in 2005. It’s a sordid and depressing story, one that you can explore in more detail in several true-crime documentary series. Blake’s role was an even more extreme version of the character Ben from Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” a part that helped revive the career of Dean Stockwell, another former child actor. Although Blake was acquitted in criminal court, he was later found liable for his wife’s death in a civil trial. James William Guercio was the producer and manager of Chicago, one of the era’s biggest rock bands. Kicked out of five schools as a teen, he failed to register for the draft, and the penalty was immediate conscription. It's hard to be certain about his age, because Blake told everyone that he was conscripted into the U.S. He eventually landed a role in the long-running Our Gang (aka, The Little Rascals) comedy short subjects. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1938 and put young Mickey to work as a movie extra.