Emmy Award-winning actor Robert Blake, who was tried and acquitted of the murder of his wife, has died.
Robert Blake, who is best known for his role in 1967 film In Cold Blood, died from heart disease at his home surrounded by family in Los Angeles on Thursday, a statement released by his niece Noreen Austin read. He was 89.
Blake won an Emmy in 1975 for his portrayal of the titular character in TV cop series Baretta before adding another to his collection 18 years later as the title character in Judgment Day: the John List Story - a soft-spoken, churchgoing man who murdered his wife and three children.
However, Blake is most famous for being at the centre of a real-life murder trial following the death of his second wife Bonny Lee Bakley in 2001.
Bakley was shot outside of Italian restaurant, Vitello's, in Burbank, California on May 4, 2001.
He claimed she was shot when he left her in the car and returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he had inadvertently left behind. Blake was not arrested until a year after the crime occurred.
Prosecutors claimed that he planned to kill Bakley to get sole custody of his daughter Rosie and tried to hire hitmen for the job. But evidence was muddled and a jury rejected that theory.
In an Associated Press interview, Blake once said: ""Rosie is my blood. Rosie is calling to me. I have no doubt that Rosie and I are going to walk off into the sunset together."
He was adamant that he had not killed his wife and a jury ultimately acquitted him in March 2005. 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.
Born Michael James Gubitos on September 18, 1933 to an Italian immigrant father and an Italian-American mother, Blake started in showbiz from the age of five when he was cast in "Our Gang". He appeared in the series for five years and changed his name to Bobby Blake.
His career progressed in Hollywood and he portrayed the little boy who sells Humphrey Bogart a crucial lottery ticket in the Oscar-winning The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Blake's biggest breakthrough with In Cold Blood, where he played real-life murderer Perry Smith in the movie of Truman Capote's true crime best seller before working on the small screen as detective Tony Baretta.
He earned the reputation as one of Hollywood's finest actors but one of the most difficult to work as his career slowed down way before the murder trial.
Speaking in an interview with AP in 2006, Blake hoped for an acting comeback to "leave a legacy" for his daughter.
He said: "I'd like to give my best performance. I'd like to leave a legacy for Rosie about who I am. I'm not ready for a dog and fishing pole yet. I'd like to go to bed each night desperate to wake up each morning and create some magic."
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