Robert Blake died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 89.
The “Baretta” star died from heart disease, according to a statement released by his niece, Noreen Austin.
“He died at home with family around him peacefully, Long-term heart issues,” Austin told Fox News Digital. “He spent the last few years listening to jazz music and playing his guitar and watching classic movies.”
Once hailed as among the finest actors of his generation, Blake became better known as the defendant in a real-life murder story more bizarre than any in which he acted. Blake went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Robert Blake died in Los Angeles on Thursday at the age of 89. (Nick Ut)
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.
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 “In Cold Blood.”
In 1975 to ’78, he starred in the TV cop series, “Baretta.”
Fox News Digital’s Larry Fink and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
