Robert Blake, Baretta actor acquitted of wife’s murder, dies at 89

LOS ANGELES – Robert Blake, the Emmy Award winner who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted for the murder of his wife, died Thursday at the age of 89.

A statement released on behalf of his niece Noreen Austin said Blake died of heart disease surrounded by family at home in Los Angeles.

Blake, star of the 1970s TV show Baretta, once hoped for a comeback but never recovered from the long ordeal that began with the murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Backley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4. , 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the birth of a child, and its violent end became a Hollywood tragedy played out in court.

Once hailed as one of the finest actors of his generation, Blake became better known as the defendant in a real-life murder trial, a story more bizarre than any he has acted in.

In an interview with the Associated Press in 2002, while in jail awaiting trial, he lamented his change in status among his fans across the country: “I was hurt because America is the only family I had.”

He was adamant that he did not kill his wife, and the jury ultimately acquitted him. But a civil jury would find him responsible for her death and order him to pay the Bakley family $30 million, a decision that led to his bankruptcy.

It was the shameful end of a life lived in the spotlight since childhood. In his youth, he starred in the comedy Our Gang and starred in the classic film Treasures of the Sierra Madre. As an adult, he was praised for his role as real-life killer Perry Smith in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.

The peak of his career came with the 1975–1978 cop series Baretta. He played a detective who carried a pet cockatoo on his shoulder and liked to dress up. It was typical of his specialty, portraying soft-hearted tough guys, and his signature line, “Don’t commit a crime if you can’t do time”, was often quoted.

Blake won a 1975 Emmy for his portrayal of Tony Baretta, although backstage the show was torn apart by controversy involving the temperamental star. He’s earned a reputation as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, but he’s also the hardest to work with.

In 1993, Blake won another Emmy for his lead role in Doomsday: The John List Story, in which he played a quiet man who goes to church and kills his wife and three children.

His personal saga was as dramatic as any of the characters he portrayed, and he later admitted that he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction as a young man.

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He was born Michael James Gubitosi on September 18, 1933 in Nutley, New Jersey. His father, an immigrant from Italy, and his mother, an Italian American, wanted their three children to succeed in show business. At the age of 2, Blake, along with his brother and sister, performed in a family vaudeville called Three Little Hillbillies.

When his parents moved the family to Los Angeles, his mother found work for the children as a movie extra, and little Mickey Goubitosi was selected from the crowd by the producers who cast him in the comedy Our Gang. He appeared on the show for five years and changed his name to Bobby Blake.

He continued to work with Hollywood legends, playing the young John Garfield in Humoresque in 1946 and the little boy who sells Humphrey Bogart the decisive lottery ticket in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

In adulthood, he received serious roles in films. The biggest breakthrough came in 1967 with the song “In Cold Blood”. Later there were films like “Tell ‘Em Boy Willy’s Here” and “Electra Glide in Blue”.

Blake and actress Sondra Kerr married in 1961 and had two children, Noah and Dahlin. They divorced in 1983.

His fateful meeting with Bakley took place in 1999 in a jazz club, where he went to escape loneliness.

“I was 67 or 68 years old. My life has stopped. My career has stalled,” he told AP. “I’ve been alone for a long time.”

He said that he had no reason not to like Bakley: “She took me from the stands and returned to the arena. I had something to live for.”

When Bakley gave birth to a girl, she named the father of Christian Brando, the son of Marlon. But DNA tests pointed to Blake.

Blake first saw a little girl named Rosie when she was two months old and she became the center of his life. He married Buckley because of a child.

Rosie is my blood. Rosie is calling me,” he said. “I have no doubt that Rosie and I will go into the sunset together.”

Prosecutors allege that he planned to kill Bakley to gain sole custody of the child and tried to hire hit men to do the job. But the evidence was muddled and the jury rejected the theory.

On her last night of life, Blake and his 44-year-old wife dined at nearby Vitello’s. He claimed that she was shot when he left her in the car and returned to the restaurant to retrieve the gun he accidentally left behind. Initially, the police were confused, and Blake was arrested only a year after the crime.

Once a wealthy man, he spent millions on his own defense and ended up living off Social Security and a Screen Actors Guild pension.

In an AP interview in 2006, a year after his acquittal, Blake said he hoped to restart his career.

“I would like to show my best performance,” he said. “I would like to leave Rosie a legacy of who I am. I’m not ready for a dog and a fishing rod yet. I would like to go to bed every night, desperately trying to wake up every morning and work some magic. “

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Deutsch, the lead writer for this obituary, retired from the Associated Press in 2014.