(CNN) Actor Robert Blake, renowned actor and Emmy winner who starred in the crime series “Baretta,” has died, according to his daughter, Delinah Blake. He was 89.
Delinah Blake told CNN in an email that her father died “peacefully” Thursday “surrounded by family.”
The cause of death was heart disease, according to a statement from his niece Noreen Austin.
Blake’s last film credit was in 1997 for the David Lynch film “Lost Highway,” and he has previously appeared in titles including 1967’s “In Cold Blood.” He was an Emmy winner for his popular 1970s crime series “Baretta” .
In 2001, Blake’s second wife Bonny Lee Bakley was found murdered in the San Fernando Valley. In 2005, the actor was acquitted of murder charges in connection with the case. He later lost a civil suit brought by Bakley’s children.
Blake, born in Nutley, New Jersey on September 18, 1933, went by his birth name Michael Gubitosi until 1942. He got his start in Hollywood as a child actor in the 1939 “Our Gang” shorts as Mickey, one of the Little Rascals who continued under the name “Bobby Blake” in various “Our Gang” shorts until the early 40s.
His first film came in 1942 when he starred as Daniel ‘Mokey’ Delano in “Mokey”, about a troubled young boy navigating life at home with his father and stepmother. In 1967, Blake starred as Perry in the film “In Cold Blood”, based on Truman Capote’s 1965 novel of the same name, about the murder of a family in Holcomb, Kansas.
Blake later went on to star in the television series “Baretta” as Dr. Tony Baretta in the 70s, for which he won a Primetime Emmy. Other notable titles in which Blake appeared include the 1960s series “Rawhide,” the 1981 TV movie “Of Mice and Men,” and the 1995 “Money Train” with Woody Harrelson and Jennifer Lopez.
This is a development story.