Actor Robert Blake, best known for his role as murderer Perry Smith in the 1967 true-crime classic In Cold Blood, died on Wednesday. He was 89.
Noreen Austin, Blake’s niece, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor had passed after a long and difficult battle with heart disease.
Robert Blake became an infamous name in 2001 when he became the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakely, and the mother of his young daughter. The two were only married for six months when Bakely was shot and killed in the couple’s car outside of Vitello’s in Studio City, California. Blake testified that he had nothing to do with her murder, claiming he had gone back into the restaurant to retrieve a revolver he mistakenly left behind. Per THR:
Nearly four years later, including a year spent in jail, a jury acquitted Blake of murdering Bakley and also found him not guilty of soliciting a former stunt double (whom he first met on the set of his 1975-78 ABC series Baretta) to kill his wife.
During the trial, Bakley was shown to be a con artist who had dozens of aliases, swindled thousands of men and had been married 10 times previously. Blake wed her in November 2000 after a DNA test confirmed he was the father of their daughter, Rosie. (Bakley had said that Christian Brando, son of Marlon Brando, was the father.)
Blake, however, was found responsible for her death in a civil suit and ordered to pay $30 million to Bakley’s four children. He declared bankruptcy in 2006 and never acted again.
Modern movie buffs would remember Robert Blake as the creepy “Mystery Man” in David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997) in a scene that has since become a viral sensation for horror fans.
Speaking to reporters after the jury acquitted him of murder, Blake said that the battle left him broke and destitute.
“If you want to know how to go through $10 million in five years, ask me how,” he said at the time. “I was a rich man. I’m broke now.”
American novelist, short story writer, and playwright Truman Capote (1924 – 1984) (left), dressed in an overcoat, glasses, and hat, stands on a lawn near American actors Scott Wilson and Robert Blake (right), both dressed in character, while on location filming the film adaptation of Capote’s book ‘In Cold Blood,’ Kansas, 1967. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Actor Robert Blake points a gun at a store clerk (Michael Lerner) in a scene from the television series, ‘Baretta,’ 1973. (United Artists/Courtesy of Getty Images)
Blake told the CBS News program 48 Hours in 2003 that he became a victim a mob manhunt.
“Everybody said, ‘Well, hang him. Skin him first. Drive him through town and then hang him,’” Blake said. “God just kind of said, ‘Robert, sit quiet. Be patient, be patient. Let this mob mentality wear itself out. Because it just isn’t true. And if you sit still and be quiet and wait long enough, the truth does come out.’”
Blake starred as a priest working the tough streets of Los Angeles in the 1986 NBC series Hell Town, a successful show that he eventually had to quit due to its tax on his mental health.
“I was living on sleeping pills and junk food,” Blake told the Los Angeles Times in 1992. “I was overweight. My face was puffy and I had old, sad eyes. I would get in the limo to go to the Hell Town location every morning, and I’d be so uptight I could hardly breathe. My heart hurt, my soul hurt.”
File/Actor Gilbert Rowland (L) leans against a fence while talking to actor Robert Blake, both in cowboy costumes on the set of the Western film, ‘Three Violent People,’ directed by Rudolph Mate, 1957. (Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)
“I’ve always been a fierce competitor and a perfectionist, but during Hell Town, I only remember being terrified. One morning I realized I was only days — maybe hours — away from sticking a gun in my mouth and pulling the trigger,” he added.
Blake did, however, exhibit a soft side in some of his acting roles, such as when he played Detective Tony Baretta in the 1970s series Baretta. Blake won an Emmy in 1975 for his performance.
“I was magic by the time I was 2 years old,” Blake told Tavis Smiley in a 2011 interview. “When it comes to show business, I took a back seat to nobody.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.