
Robert Blake, Hollywood Star Tried For Wife’s Murder, Dies at 89
Robert Blake, a mainstay in Hollywood for decades who later became a source of even wider fascination when he was tried for the murder of his second wife, has died. According to the Associated Press “a statement released on behalf of his niece, Noreen Austin, said Blake died from heart disease, surrounded by family at home in Los Angeles.” Blake was 89 years old.
Born Michael James Gubitosi in 1933, Blake was a child actor who appeared in several Little Rascals shorts, and had a role in the classic Humphrey Bogart drama The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. After serving in the military, Blake returned to acting; as an adult, his onscreen breakthrough came in 1967’s In Cold Blood, the film adaptation of the classic Truman Capote book. Blake played murderer Perry Smith:
In the 1970s, Blake b...