This American actor, known for his brawling character and a major role as a murderer, was caught up in justice in real life at the turn of the 2000s. Accused of the shooting murder of his wife, he was finally cleared.
He had played a chilling criminal in the adaptation of In cold blood, the masterpiece of Truman Capote, before being prosecuted in real life and then acquitted for the murder of his wife: actor Robert Blake died Thursday at age 89, according to the American press. The American comedian died of heart disease, according to the specialized site Deadlinewhich quoted his niece Noreen Austin.
Known as the vigilante from the American series Baretta in the 1970s, this temperamental actor, able to fight with his colleagues, was preceded by his reputation in Hollywood. Robert Blake, who had started on the boards at the age of six, had acted in several films, including In cold blood by Richard Brooks (1967), where he played the role of a murderer, money train by Joseph Ruben (1995) and Lost Highwayby David Lynch, in 1997.
Prosecuted for the murder of his wife
His career was clouded by the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, a crime for which he was prosecuted before being cleared. Robert Blake was accused of shooting her in the head on May 4, 2001, six months after he married her, while she was sitting in their car near a Hollywood restaurant.
At trial, the prosecution had assured that the actor “despised Bonny Lee Bakley” because “she had become pregnant against her will and … she had refused an abortion as he had requested“. According to the prosecution at the time, Robert Blake had tried to persuade two stuntmen who worked with him to kill his wife, before she was found dead. The actor, who had consented to the marriage after tests of paternity had proven that he was the father of a little girl, he always claimed his innocence.
finally cleared
At trial, he explained that his wife had been killed when he returned to the restaurant to pick up a gun he had accidentally left behind. According to him, he had discovered her on her return to the car, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to the head and shoulder.
Her lawyer had explained to the jurors that the seven previous husbands of Bonny Lee Bakley, the hundreds of men she had defrauded and Christian Brando, the son of Marlon Brando, whom she had frequented, were the possible perpetrators of the crime. Robert Blake was cleared in criminal court in early 2005. But that same year, a civil jury then declared him responsible for the death of Bonny Lee Bakley and sentenced to pay 30 million dollars to his family.