FOG BLOG ENTERTAINMENT LOG: 'BARRETA' STAR ROBERT BLAKE DIES AT 89!

Robert Blake, famous actor who was also accused of killing his wife, has died Known for Little Rascals, In Cold Blood and Barreta, Blake was acquitted of murdering wife in 2005 Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died Thursday at age 89.

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, star of the 1970s TV show Barreta, had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered after the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court after he was charged with murder in 2002.

He was adamant that he had not killed his wife and a jury ultimately acquitted him in 2005. But a civil jury would later find him liable for her death and order him to pay Bakley's family $30 million US, a judgment which sent him into bankruptcy. The daughter he and Bakley had together, Rose Lenore, was raised by other relatives and went for years without seeing Blake, until they spoke in 2019.