Actor Robert Blake who had his illustrious career clouded by claims that he murdered his wife died at age 89.
He was best known as the titular hero of the 1970s TV detective series Baretta and acted in the 1997 film Lost Highway, but his career suffered after his wife was fatally shot in 2001.
He was charged with her murder and acquitted but was later judged civilly accountable for her death.
Blake died “peacefully with family and friends,” according to his relatives.
His niece, Noreen Austin, stated in a statement on Thursday that he died of heart disease.
Once his family moved to Hollywood, the New Jersey native got his start as a child by appearing in the Our Gang comedy series.
Beginning his career in the late 1930s, he appeared in the classic film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and as the killer Perry Smith in a 1967 adaptation of Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood.
He also appeared on the NBC series Hell Town and received an Emmy nomination for the CBS made-for-TV film Judgement Day: The John List Story.
His career, which was once regarded as one of the greatest of his generation, never recovered after his imprisonment.
Mr. Blake’s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was shot while alone in the actor’s car in Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood.
The actor told authorities that he had left her alone to return to the Italian restaurant where they had just dined to grab a gun he had left behind, and when he returned, he discovered her dead.
Four years after her death, including a year in jail while Mr. Blake awaited trial, a jury in Los Angeles declared him not guilty of her murder.
Numerous parallels were drawn at the time to the trial of celebrity OJ Simpson, who was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife in Los Angeles ten years previously.
He was later ordered by a judge in a civil proceeding to pay $30 million (£25 million) to his ex-children, his wife’s prompting him to declare bankruptcy.
He lost his appeal, but he was able to reduce the penalty to $15 million.
Mr. Blake maintained his innocence at all times.
He had four children and was married to actress Sondra Kerr for 22 years before their divorce in 1983.
He married longtime friend Pamela Hudak in 2017, but the couple separated two years later.
