Hartford Courant

Actor’s murder trial was finale to career

- By Linda Deutsch

LOS ANGELES — Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died Thursday at age 89.

A statement released on behalf of his niece, Noreen Austin, said Blake died from heart disease, surrounded by family at home in Los Angeles.

Blake, star of the 1970s TV show “Baretta,” had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the long ordeal that began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001.

In a 2002 interview with The Associated Press while he was jailed awaiting trial, he bemoaned the change in his status with his fans nationwide: “It hurt because America is the only family I had.”

He was adamant that he had not killed his wife and a jury ultimately acquitted him. But a civil jury would find him liable for her death and order him to pay Bakley’s family $30 million, a judgment which sent him into bankruptcy. 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. She would tell People magazine that she called him “Robert,” not “Dad.”

It was an ignominiou­s finale for a life lived in the spotlight from childhood. As a youngster, he starred in the “Our Gang” comedies and acted in a movie classic, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” As an adult, he was praised for his portrayal of real-life murderer Perry Smith in the movie of Truman Capote’s true crime bestseller “In Cold Blood.”

His career peaked with the 1975-78 TV cop series “Baretta.” It was typical of his specialty, portraying tough guys with soft hearts.

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 gained a reputation as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, but one of the most difficult to work with. He later admitted to struggles with alcohol and drug addiction in his early life.

In 1993, Blake won another Emmy as the title character in “Judgment Day: The John List Story,” portraying a soft-spoken, churchgoin­g man who murdered his wife and three children.

Blake’s career had slowed down well before the trial. 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. According to his niece, Blake had spent his recent years “enjoying jazz music, playing his guitar, reading poetry and watching many Hollywood Classic films.”

In 1961, Blake and actor Sondra Kerr married and had two children, Noah and Delinah. They divorced in 1983.

 ?? FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY ?? Actor Robert Blake, seen arriving at Los Angeles Superior Court for a pretrial hearing on a murder charge in 2004, died Thursday at the age of 89.
FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY Actor Robert Blake, seen arriving at Los Angeles Superior Court for a pretrial hearing on a murder charge in 2004, died Thursday at the age of 89.

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