He had distinguished himself in the 1970s in the detective series Baretta. American actor Robert Blake died Thursday, March 9, at the age of 89 from heart disease, confirmed several American media including CNN and Variety. His niece Noreen Austin announced his death to the American agency Associated Press, stating that the actor died surrounded by his family in Los Angeles.
This so-called temperamental actor, able to fight with his colleagues, was preceded by his reputation in Hollywood. He also played a chilling criminal in the adaptation of Truman Capote's masterpiece In Cold Blood (1967).
Judicial soap opera
The actor's career was subsequently marred by a court scandal related to the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Robert Blake is accused of having shot her on May 4, 2001, six months after marrying her, while she was sitting in their car near a Hollywood restaurant.
At trial, the prosecution had assured that the actor "despised Bonny Lee Bakley" because "she had become pregnant against her will and (…) had refused an abortion as he had asked her". According to the prosecution at the time, Robert Blake had tried to persuade two stuntmen who worked with him to kill his wife, before she was found dead.
The actor, who had consented to the marriage after paternity tests proved that he was the father of a little girl, has always claimed his innocence. At trial, he explained that his wife was killed when he returned to the restaurant to pick up a gun he had accidentally left behind. According to him, he had discovered her when he returned to the car, bleeding profusely.
Cleared in criminal proceedings, declared liable in civil proceedings
Her attorney told jurors that Bakley's seven previous husbands, the hundreds of men she had defrauded, and Marlon Brando's son Christian Brando, whom she had dated, could all be possible perpetrators. Mr. Blake had been criminally cleared in early 2005. But that same year, a civil jury later found him responsible for Ms. Bakley's death and ordered to pay her family $30 million.
Besides his roles in Baretta and In Cold Blood, Robert Blake, who started on the boards at the age of 6, had appeared in several films, including Money Train (1995) and Lost Highway (1997), by David Lynch. .
