File photo of actor Robert Blake. (AFP)
Robert Blake, the controversial actor who won Emmy Award before a murder trial ended his career, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 89.
Here are five points on Robert Blake:
Mr Blake started acting at the age of 5, according to New York Times (NYT). His big break came in the 1970s television series 'Baretta', in which he played the role of detective Tony Baretta. He appeared in hundreds of TV shows and several films in his decades-long career, the outlet further said.
The actor led a tempestuous life - he punched producers, fought with fellow actors and abused drugs and alcohol - said the NYT report.
Mr Blake worked for more than 60 years in Hollywood and appeared in classics such as Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and In Cold Blood (1967). His final feature film role was in Lost Highway (1997), which was directed by David Lynch.
According to the BBC, he was charged with murdering his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley in 2002. Though the actor was acquitted in 2005, the court asked him to pay her family $30 million, a move that bankrupted him.
A few years before his death, Mr Blake wrote his memoir, The Life of a Rascal, and lived a quiet life in Los Angeles. He died of heart disease.
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