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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, "Baretta," had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the long ordeal which began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001. The...

The relentless churn of famous figures who’ve hosted Saturday Night Live over the years has left the show with not a few regrets. Being a bad host is one thing, with SNL’s shark-like momentum simply shaking off a bummer of an episode and moving on. (Or, as in the cases of such universally reviled outings from hosts Milton Berle and Frank Zappa, being pulled from syndication by producer Lorne Michaels for a time.) But then there are the host bookings that, thanks to the host’s life away from the SNL spotlight, leave a stain that Michaels and NBC would much...

Robert Blake began his acting career at age 5 in MGM's Our Gang series and went on to appear as a powerful adult performer in leading and character roles.

Sri Lanka: ambassadors Italian and US wounded in a rebellious offensive COLOMBO - The ambassadors American and Italian in Sri Lanka were wounded Tuesday in an offensive with artillery carried out by rebels tamouls supposed in the east of the island, indicated to AFP the minister human rights Mahinda Samarasinghe. The ambassador Robert Blake and his Italian counterpart Prio Mariani were touched by glares of shells which struck the landing strip of the air base of Batticaloa at the time when the diplomats left a military helicopter, specified the Samarasinghe minister. Mr. Mariani was touched with the head, without...

A year after Robert Blake was acquitted in criminal court of killing his wife, the former tough guy actor spends his days exercising horses at a friend's ranch and planning a comeback. He acknowledges the past year has often been a time of despair, particularly the civil trial last fall in which a jury ordered him to pay his wife's family $30 million. But the 72-year-old Blake, who was a child actor in the "Our Gang" movie series and a hard-boiled cop in the 1970s TV show "Baretta," says he's finally begun to emerge from that dark period. "I want...

LOS ANGELES - O.J. Simpson on Friday questioned the system that allowed both him and actor Robert Blake to be found liable for murder after being acquitted in criminal court, calling it "double jeopardy." "I still don't get how anyone can be found not guilty of a murder and then be found responsible for it in any way shape or form," Simpson said in a phone interview from his Florida home. "... If you're found not guilty, how can you be found responsible? I'd love to hear how that's not double jeopardy." Simpson said he had no opinion about Blake's...

Breaking...

(AP) A jury reached a verdict Friday in the wrongful death civil case against actor Robert Blake, acquitted of criminal charges eight months ago in the death of his wife. The jury finding was to be read in court later in the day. If they found him liable in the May 2001 death of Bonny Lee Bakley, jurors could order the former "Baretta" star to pay damages to her children. Jurors had begun deliberations Nov. 4; Friday was their eighth day. Blake was acquitted at his murder trial last March. Bakley's four children sued the 72-year-old actor in 2002, claiming...

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - A businessman with ties to Los Angeles police testified Monday he tried frantically to alert authorities to an alternate theory of who killed Robert Blake's wife but his story apparently was discounted. Brian Allan Fiebelkorn was called to the stand by Blake's defense in his civil wrongful death trial. The witness, who manages one of the nation's largest luxury car dealerships, provided jurors with a complex story that sounded like the stuff of a movie script. It featured a homeless, toothless man, two suicides and a group tied to Marlon Brando's son, Christian. Fiebelkorn, who described...

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - Christian Brando, the son of actor Marlon Brando, took the witness stand Tuesday in Robert Blake's civil trial but declined to answer key questions to protect himself from possible self-incrimination. Brando's lawyer, Bruce Margolin, stood next to him at the witness box and repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment on behalf of his client. Brando, 46, has been a key figure in the case surrounding the murder of Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Blake's lawyers have pointed at him as a possible suspect in the slaying. Brando has not been arrested or charged. On the witness stand,...

Burbank -- The oldest daughter of the wife of Robert Blake testified Tuesday that her mother took a fertility drug instead of birth control pills before the birth of the couple's daughter, Rosie. Bakley's children are suing Blake, saying the "Baretta" star was responsible for their mother's death. Bakley was shot and killed in Blake's car outside a restaurant in May 2001. Blake was charged with Bakley's death but a jury acquitted him of murder in March. Holly Gawron, 25, testified that her mother said to her, "I told him I was on the pill. I just didn't say what...

Long before he was accused of killing second wife Bonny Lee Bakley, "Baretta" star Robert Blake set up a "contract" hit on his ex-wife and the actor she was dating, according to her shocking new testimony. Sondra Kerr-Blake said friends later told her of Blake's foiled plan to have her and Steve Railsback, best known for his role as Charles Manson in the TV flick "Helter Skelter," whacked in the late '70s, according to her deposition obtained by the Daily News. "I found out from several different people ... that he had put a 'contract' out on me and the...

DO YOU watch CSI? It is a question heard in an increasing number of jury selection hearings across the US. The hit television series Crime Scene Investigation, in which brilliant forensic scientists solve seemingly baffling cases each week in little more than 40 minutes, is changing the face of American justice as jurors apply the lessons of what they have seen on TV to real-life criminal trials. A decade ago, the kind of physical and forensic evidence used in the OJ Simpson trial baffled many viewers. Today, educated by what they believe they have learned from TV, it is the...

Watching Bob and Mary Schindler on television news programs is heart wrenching. This is not their regular line of work. Mr. Schindler expressed his own confusion at the legal maneuvers and decisions which seem necessary to save his daughter’s life. Mrs. Schindler is like any normal American mother: she loves her daughter with her whole heart and just wants to be allowed to care for her. In total contrast, every network features legal analysts familiar with every nook and cranny in the bowels of our justice system. Their continuous presence in the media analyzing the details cases like Michael Jackson’s...

LOS ANGELES — In his first television appearance since being acquitted last week in the killing of his wife, actor Robert Blake (search) said Tuesday he does not know who killed Bonny Lee Bakley (search) but speculated it could have been "somebody whose father was taken for a ride."

Lets see, first Michael Schiavo beats and strangles his wife Terri, leaves her lying unconscious on the floor until her family arrives to get her to the hospital. Then Michael Schiavo sues the hospital for $20 million because he needs the money to get his poor wife therapy. Then Michael Schiavo pockets the money, denies his wife the care he said she needed and finally, claims she really wants to die. Michael Schiavo killed his wife Terri's cat, melted down her wedding ring and then took up with his girlfriend and lives with her today with their children. Does this...

RUSH: With the Schiavo case at the end of the program on Friday, I said, "I'm going to throw some gasoline on the fire." I said, "Isn't it amazing that when it comes to the subject of life, you don't find any Democrats on that side?" It just continues to amaze me. Even when the subject is life of a human being, the Democrats always seem to come down on the opposite side of life. So I'm watching all these debates over the weekend and I'm watching some of the debate in the House late last night, and there it...

It was probably big news across the USA, but it was certainly big news in Los Angeles, when a jury found Robert Blake "Not Guilty" of murdering his wife, and of soliciting her murder. While few will doubt that this was always going to be a hard trial for the prosecution, given the very unsympathetic character of the victim, I doubt that anyone could have forseen how much our legal system is incapable of dealing with jurors with "hidden adgendas" who get themselves onto juries in order to further their personal objectives. In a wild interview on the John Ziegler...

Blake's Hollywood EndingMarch 16, 2005 Robert Blake was acquitted of murder and solicitation Wednesday after long jury deliberations because he is no Scott Peterson and because his slain wife Bonnie Bakley was no Laci Peterson. He was acquitted because two key prosecution witnesses against him were not credible enough to convince jurors that Blake was actively seeking to murder his wife. He was acquitted because the physical case against him wasn't convincing and because the eyewitness testimony was ambiguous, at best. Sometimes there is no mystery in a verdict. This is one of those times. The problem for prosecutors...

Verdict reached in ROBERT BLAKE CASE- will be live in courtroom 2:30 PST Judge allowing cameras.