Actor Robert Blake, who played a mass killer in the film adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and was acquitted of killing his own wife, has died in Los Angeles, US media reported Thursday. He was 89.
Showbiz publication Deadline reported Blake had died of heart disease and said his niece Noreen Austin had confirmed the news.
Blake, who found fame as a US TV detective in the 1970s series Baretta, made a name for himself as a hell-raising actor who got into fist fights with colleagues.
But his career, which began when he was a child, was overshadowed by the murder of his wife, a crime for which he was tried and acquitted.
Bonny Lee Bakley was in a relationship with Christian Brando, the son of Marlon Brando, when she met Blake at a Los Angeles nightclub in 1999.
Paternity tests on the child she bore several months later revealed that Blake, not Brando, was the father, and the couple were married.
In 2001, Bakley was found dead from a gunshot in a car outside a restaurant where she and Blake had just dined.
At his trial, Blake said his wife was shot when he returned to the restaurant to pick up a gun he had accidentally left behind.
The actor claimed he returned to the car to find his wife bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to her head and shoulder.
Possible perpetrators, Blake's lawyer told jurors, included Bakley's numerous prior husbands, the hundreds of men she swindled, as well as Christian Brando.
The jury heard evidence that Blake had tried to hire stuntmen to kill his wife, but acquitted him in early 2005.
Later that year, a civil jury found him liable for Bakley's death and ordered him to pay $30 million to her family.
Scroll through more images of famous people who have died in 2023 below
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American comedian Kelly Monteith died on January 1 aged 80. Getty Images -
Daredevil rally driver Ken Block died on January 2 aged 55. EPA -
Child actor Adam Rich died on January 7 aged 54. AP -
British guitarist Jeff Beck died on January 10 aged 78. AFP -
German model Tatjana Patitz died on January 11 aged 56. Reuters -
Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley, died on January 12 aged 54. Reuters -
Italian movie star Gina Lollobrigida, one of the last from the Golden Age of Hollywood, died on January 16 at 95. PA News -
Wrestlers and brothers Jay, right, and Mark Briscoe. Jay died on January 17 aged 38. jaybriscoe84 / Twitter -
American folk-rock star David Crosby died on January 18 aged 81. EPA -
Balkrishna Doshi, one of India’s most distinguished architects, died on January 24 aged 95. AP -
TikTok star Randy Gonzalez died on January 25 aged 35. @enkyboys / Instagram -
Cindy Williams, who played Shirley on the hit sitcom Laverne & Shirley, died on January 25 aged 75. AFP -
Barrett Strong, one of Motown’s founding artists, died on January 29 aged 81. AP -
The Last of Us and 24 actress Annie Wersching died on January 29 aged 45. AP -
South Indian director and actor K Viswanath died on February 2 aged 92. Photo: Wikimedia Commons -
Fashion designer Paco Rabanne died on February 3 aged 88. Reuters -
Veteran Indian singer Vani Jayaram died in Chennai on February 4 aged 78. Photo: Twitter -
Pop composer Burt Bacharach died on February 8 aged 94. AFP -
South African rap sensation Kiernan Forbes, popularly known as AKA, died on February 10 aged 35. AFP -
David 'Trugoy the Dove' Jolicoeur of the US hip-hop band De La Soul died on February 12 aged 54. EPA -
Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto died on February 13 aged 85. AP -
American actress Raquel Welch died at the age of 82 on February 15. EPA -
Stella Stevens, pictured in New York in 1968, died on February 18 aged 84. AP -
Law & Order actor Richard Belzer died aged 78 on February 19. AP -
Jansen Panettiere, who appeared in shows such as Major Crimes and The Walking Dead, died aged 28 on February 19. Getty -
Football commentator John Motson died on February 23 aged 77. PA -
Hollywood film producer Walter Mirisch died aged 101 on February 24. AP -
Animator and director Burny Mattinson worked with Disney for nearly 70 years until his death aged 87 on February 27. WireImage -
French football player Just Fontaine died aged 89 on March 1. EPA -
Pulp bassist Steve Mackey, right, died aged 56 on March 2. Getty -
Wayne Shorter, an influential jazz musician, died aged 89 on March 2. AFP -
Architect Rafael Vinoly died aged 78 on March 2. Getty -
Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore died aged 61 on March 3. Reuters -
Gary Rossington, a founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died aged 71 on March 5. EPA -
Pakistani actor Qavi Khan died aged 80 on March 5. Photo: Parveen Shah Productions -
Bollywood actor, comedian, writer and director Satish Kaushik died aged 66 on March 8. Jeff Topping / The National -
Israeli actor Chaim Topol died aged 87 on March 8. AP -
British TV presenter and comedian Paul O'Grady died on March 28 at the age of 67. PA -
Moonbin, a member of K-pop boy band Astra, died at the age of 25 on April 19. AFP -
Bodybuilding social media influencer Jo Lindner, popularly known as Joesthetics, died on July 1 at the age of 30. @joesthetics / Instagram -
Peter Hellyer, who moved to the UAE in the 1970s, died on July 2 at the age of 75. Pawan Singh / The National -
British-French actress and singer Jane Birkin, who inspired the famous Hermes Birkin bag, died aged 76 on July 16. AFP -
American musician Tony Bennett died on July 21 at the age of 96. Reuters -
Acclaimed Irish singer Sinead O’Connor died at the age of 56 on July 26. Sarah Dea / The National -
Matthew Perry, one of the stars of TV sitcom Friends, died on October 28 aged 54. AFP -
Former US first lady Rosalynn Carter died at the age of 96 on November 19. AP -
South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, best known for his role in Parasite, died on December 27 aged 48. Reuters
