The ‘Baretta’ Star Who Faced Murder Charges Was 89

Former child star Robert Blake, one of the few members of the early Our Gang film shorts to find success as an adult actor, died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home after a long battle with heart disease. His niece, Noreen Austin, confirmed the news. He was 89.

Born Michael James Gubitosi on September 18, 1933 in Nutley, New Jersey, Blake began acting at the age of five under his birth name in the final years of the Our Gang (aka Little Rascals) short film series, then produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He continued as a child actor in the Red Ryder film franchise.

After a stint in the United States Army, Blake returned to his acting roots, both in film and on television, while battling a documented two-year addiction to heroin and cocaine. After turning down the role of “Little” Joe Cartwright on NBC’s long-running western Bonanza (which Michael Landon filled, of course), Blake made the rounds as a guest star in TV dramas like The Californians, Black Saddle, Playhouse 90, Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, Laramie and Ben Casey.

He also appeared in numerous theatricals, including The Purple Gang (1960), Pork Chop Hill (1959), Town Without Pity (1961), Ensign Pulver (1964), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). And he was a recurring member of TV’s The Richard Boone Show. But it was the 1967 theatrical In Cold Blood, based on Truman Capote’s best-selling book, as the real-life murderer Perry Smith that was his first breakout role.

In 1975, when ABC was in search of a replacement for Tony Musante in the crime drama Toma, the series morphed into Baretta with Robert Blake in the title role. It lasted four seasons and Blake won the Emmy Award that first season for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Later in his career, Blake received Emmy nominations for the limited series Blood Feud in 1983, and the TV movie Judgement Day: The John List Story in 1993.

Blake also starred in the short-lived TV drama Hell’s Town in 1985, and appeared in films Money Train in 1995 and David Lynch’s Lost Highway in 1997. But he faced his own personal legal crisis in 2001 when his then wife Bonnie Lee Bakley was fatally shot in the head while sitting in Blake’s car outside of a restaurant. According to Blake’s statements to the police, he returned to the restaurant, saying he had left his personal handgun, a .38 Special Smith & Wesson revolver, in a booth.

Almost one year later, Blake was arrested and charged with the shooting. He spent 11 months in jail before bail was set.

Blake was acquitted in March 2005, mainly because testimony by key prosecution witnesses proved unreliable in the eyes of the jury, but was found liable for Bakley’s death in a civil suit filed by the victim’s children. Blake was ordered to pay $30 million, but that judgement was reduced to $15 million in 2008.

Blake kept a low profile in the following years, with a rare appearance on Tavis Smiley’s PBS talk show in 2011 and on Piers Morgan’s CNN talker to promote his autobiography, Tales of a Rascal: What I Did for Love.

Blake is survived by his children with his former wife, actress Sondra Kerr — actor Noah Blake and Delinah Blake — and by a daughter, Rose, with Bakley.