Child star Blake's tough screen life

Blake began his acting career in short comedy films aged five

Actor Robert Blake, now cleared of his wife's murder, was a child star who grew into a series of "tough guy" roles.

He was arrested in April 2002, almost a year after wife Bonny Lee Bakley was shot dead in a car outside a restaurant in California's Studio City.

But a jury acquitted him in March 2005 both of murder and of trying to solicit someone to kill his wife. The US star had always maintained his innocence.

The case was an unwanted return to the public eye for Blake, born Michael "Mickey" Gubitosi in Nutley, New Jersey, in September 1933.

His parents, James and Elizabeth, were a song-and-dance duo who soon incorporated him into their act.

At the age of five his family moved to Los Angeles and he won a prominent role in Our Gang, a series of short comedy films for MGM Studios.

Soon afterwards he adopted the stage name Bobby Blake and took on a series of roles throughout his teens and 20s.

Abuse

He would tell People magazine in 1993 that his childhood had been marred by severe psychological, physical and sexual abuse.

Blake claimed his late parents had "locked me in a closet and left me there all day long" and "made me eat on the floor like a dog".

Nevertheless Blake continued to develop a film career, and in 1967 he was widely praised for his performance as mass murderer Perry Smith in the movie version of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

He went on to tackle the equally demanding roles of an Indian fugitive in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here and an obnoxious police officer in Electra Glide In Blue.

Blake had a daughter with the late Bonny Lee Bakley, his second wife

However, Blake's outspoken manner did not endear him to the Hollywood establishment and after 1973 his performances were largely confined to the small screen.

His career received a welcome boost in 1975 when he secured the lead role in TV crime series Baretta.

Blake's performance as tough-talking detective Tony Baretta, with a pet cockatoo named Fred, won him an Emmy for outstanding actor in a drama series.

Despite this, Baretta was cancelled after three-and-a-half series, but Blake maintained his high profile with regular guest slots on the popular Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

The actor suffered bouts of depression and alcohol abuse, however, and in 1983 he divorced his first wife Sondra Blake, with whom he had two children.

After walking out of TV series Hell Town in 1985, Blake put his career on hold for eight years.

My life had always been an adventure. I've been the bull rider, not the guy sitting in the stands selling popcorn Robert Blake

He made a minor returns in 1993 TV movie Judgement Day: The John List story and most recently in David Lynch's surreal 1997 film Lost Highway.

He married Bonny Lee Bakley in November 2000, five months after the birth of their daughter Rose, but the couple lived separately in Studio City. Bakley was 44 when she died.

Following his arrest, Blake pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, soliciting murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and a special charge of lying in wait.

Last year he took part in a lengthy television interview from prison to protest his innocence, watched by 12.2m viewers on ABC's 20/20 show.

Blake told host Barbara Walters that Bakley had come into his life at a time when he was lonely.

He said: "Here I was 67 or 68 years old. My life was on hold. My career is settled out. I've been alone for a long time."

Blake added: "My life had always been an adventure. I've been the bull rider, not the guy sitting in the stands selling popcorn."