00:01Robert Blake, the critically acclaimed and Emmy-winning actor whose career was derailed by charges he murdered his wife in 2001, has died. Blake died Thursday in Los Angeles from heart disease, his niece, Noreen Austin, told the Associated Press in a statement.
00:17He was 89. The actor was acquitted in 2005 of the shooting death of his wife, Bonnie Lee Backley, in a high-profile criminal trial, but later that year was found liable by a civil jury.
00:35While Blake had found a way to rebound after tough times throughout his career, he was never able to fully move forward after beating the murder charges.
00:47His up-and-down career began in the late 1930s, when at age 5, he appeared in Our Gang, comedies.
01:00He rose to prominence as an actor when he played murderer Perry Smith in the 1967 film adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and won an Emmy in 1975 for playing the title character in the hit police detective series, Beretta.
01:17He also played lead roles in the films, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, 1969, and, Electra Glide in Blue, 1973, and in the 1985 TV series, Helltown.
01:31His last role was in the 1997 David Lynch movie, Lost Highway. Despite his one-time popularity and critical acclaim, Blake's career was overshadowed by the events of May 4, 2001.
01:47He and Backley, theirs was a strained relationship, ate dinner that evening at Vitello's, a Studio City restaurant where he was a regular.
01:59After they finished and went out to the car, according to Blake's statements to police, he returned to the restaurant, saying he had left his personal handgun, a
02:1338 Special Smith & Wesson revolver, in a booth. When he got back to the car, he said, Backley, 44, was slumped over in the passenger seat, fatally shot in the head.
02:27Police initially said Blake was not a suspect. The murder weapon, a Walther P38 9mm pistol, was found in a nearby dumpster. Nearly a year later, he was arrested and charged with the shooting.
02:43He spent 11 months in jail before bail was even set, and he spent millions of dollars on lawyers and private investigators.
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