Robert Blake, star of ‘In Cold Blood’ who faced murder charges in real life, dies at 89
LOS ANGELES — Robert Blake, the critically acclaimed and Emmy-award-winning actor whose career was derailed by charges he murdered his wife in 2001, has died.
Blake died Thursday in Los Angeles from heart disease, his niece, Noreen Austin, told The Associated Press in a statement. He was 89.
The actor was acquitted in 2005 of the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in a high-profile criminal trial, but later that year was found liable by a civil jury. While Blake had found a way to rebound after tough times throughout his career, he was never able to fully move forward after beating the murder charges.
His up-and-down career began at age 5 when he appeared in “Our Gang” comedies in the late 1930s. He rose to prominence as an actor when he played murderer Perry Smith in the 1967 film adaptation of Truman
