AMANDA BLAKE ,AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 1929 FEBRUARY 20 - 1989 AUGUST 16

 

AMANDA BLAKE ,AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN

1929 FEBRUARY 20 - 1989 AUGUST 16

Amanda Blake (born Beverly Louise Neill, February 20, 1929 – August 16, 1989) was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the western television series Gunsmoke. Along with her third husband, Frank Gilbert, she ran one of the first successful programs for breeding cheetahs in captivity.

Early

Amanda Blake was born Beverly Louise Neill in Buffalo, New York,[1] the only child of Jesse and Louise (née Puckett) Neill. Her father was a banker; Blake herself was a telephone operator and briefly attended Pomona College before she took up acting.[2][3] Catherine Moore ″Kate" Barry (1752–1823), one of her ancestors, was a heroine of the American Revolutionary War. She warned local patriots of Banastre Tarleton's approach, giving them time to group and prepare for the Battle of Cowpens (January 17, 1781), a major American victory that helped pave the way for the British defeat at Yorktown. Blake donated a cameo-sized portrait of Barry owned by her family to the local history museum in Spartanburg, South Carolina,[citation needed] and contributed a Moore family heirloom musket to Walnut Grove Plantation.[citation needed]

Career

In Stars in My Crown (1950)

In the late 1940s, Blake was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as the studio saw her as its next Greer Garson.[2] In 1954, she was in A Star Is Born.[4] Nicknamed "the Young Greer Garson",[5] Blake became best known for her 19-year stint as the saloon-keeper Miss Kitty on the television series Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1974. On February 27, 1974, Blake brought a lion named Kemo on to the Gunsmoke set.[6]

Prior to that, Blake had appeared in a few Hollywood films, such as the 1952 western Cattle Town and in the starring role of Miss Robin Crusoe, a 1954 adaptation of the Robinson Crusoe adventure. In 1968, Blake was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.[7] She was the third performer inducted, after Tom Mix and Gary Cooper, selected in 1958 and 1966, respectively.

Because of her continuing role on television, Blake rarely had time for films. She did appear on a number of television shows, including a recurring comedy routine on The Red Skelton Show, as a panelist on the long-running Hollywood Squares, Tattletales, and the 1970s revival of Match Game, as well as comedy appearances on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. In 1957, she guest-starred as Betty Lavon-Coate in the episode titled "Coate of Many Colors" on Rod Cameron's crime drama, State Trooper. After the Gunsmoke reunion film, she made two feature-film appearances: in The Boost, a drug-addiction drama starring James Woods and Sean Young, and B.O.R.N, both in 1988.[8]

Personal life

Blake married Don Whitman in 1954 and divorced him in 1956.[1] After the divorce from Whitman, she would go to the 'saloon set' of Gunsmoke. Blake felt like it was home to her on the days when she was not needed.[9] She married Jason Seymour Day Jr. in 1964 and divorced him in 1967.[citation needed] Blake married Frank Gilbert in 1967 and divorced him in 1982.[citation needed] She married Mark Edward Spaeth in 1984. Spaeth died in 1985.[10]

Animal welfare

After Gunsmoke, Blake went into semi-retirement at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, and took on few film or television projects. She instead devoted more time to her animals.[11] She had been known for bringing her pet lion, Kemo, onto the Gunsmoke set.[6] Kemo lived in an animal compound at her home, at which she and husband Frank Gilbert ran an experimental breeding program for cheetahs. They were some of the first to breed cheetahs successfully in captivity; they raised seven generations of cheetahs.[12]

Blake joined with others in 1971 to form the Arizona Animal Welfare League, today the oldest and largest "no-kill" animal shelter in the state. In 1985, she helped finance the start-up of the Performing Animal Welfare Society and devoted a great deal of time and money[clarification needed] in support of its efforts, including travels to Africa. Blake reportedly was a one-time board member of the Humane Society of the United States. In 1997, the Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge opened at Rancho Seco Park in Herald, California. The refuge provides sanctuary for free-ranging African hoofed wildlife, most of which were originally destined for exotic animal auctions or hunting ranches.[13]

Declining health and death

Blake was a heavy cigarette smoker and had surgery for oral cancer in 1977. She became a supporter of the American Cancer Society and made fundraising appearances throughout the country. In 1984, she was the recipient of the society's annual Courage Award, which was presented to her by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The popular media later widely reported that Blake's doctor claimed that she had actually died of AIDS. Her close friends have insisted that she was not a drug user or sexually promiscuous, and that she may have acquired the disease from a former husband.[14] On August 16, 1989, Blake died of liver failure brought on by viral hepatitis at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, California.[15]

Amanda Blake played Miss Kitty Russell, proprietor of Dodge City's Long Branch Saloon, for 19 years on Gunsmoke.

At her four-acre home site at 5105 E. Exeter Street in the Arcadia District of Phoenix, she operated a cat-house of different kind. There she kept a lion and 10 rare cheetahs.

A former caretaker tells of feeling a raspy, wet lick on his hand as he walked away from the cheetah enclosure one day.  He looked down to see the oldest cheetah wandering freely around the yard.  Relieved when the huge cat followed him back into the enclosure, he set aside his worries about newspaper headlines and panicked neighbors.

Filmography[edit]

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	Stars In My Crown	Faith Radmore Samuels
1950	Duchess of Idaho	Linda Kinston
1950	Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard	Karen Michelle
1951	Smuggler's Gold	Susan Hodges
1951	China Corsair	Jane Richards	Uncredited
1951	Never Trust a Gambler	The Redhead at Police Station	Uncredited
1951	Criminal Lawyer	Receptionist	Uncredited
1951	Sunny Side of the Street	Susie Manning
1951	The Family Secret	Telephone Girl	Uncredited
1952	Scarlet Angel	Susan Bradley
1952	Cattle Town	Marian Hastings
1953	Lili	Peach Lips (red-haired dame)
1953	Sabre Jet	Helen Daniel
1954	About Mrs. Leslie	Gilly
1954	A Star Is Born	Susan Ettinger
1954	The Adventures of Hajji Baba	Banah
1954	Miss Robin Crusoe	Robin Crusoe
1955	The Glass Slipper	Birdena
1955	High Society	Clarissa Jones
1988	The Boost	Barbara
1988	B.O.R.N.	Rosie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars		2 episodes
1953	Cavalcade of America	Nancy Hart	Episode: "Breakfast at Nancy's"
1954	Four Star Playhouse	Susan Pierce	Episode: "Vote of Confidence"
1955– 1974	Gunsmoke	Kitty Russell	425 episodes
1956	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Carol Arlington	Episode: "Whodunit"
1957	State Trooper	Betty Lavon-Coate	Episode: "Coate of Many Colors"
1957– 1963	The Red Skelton Show	Ruby	7 episodes
1958	Studio One	Joan Roberts	Episode: "Tide of Corruption"
1959	Steve Canyon	Molly McIntyre	Episode: "Room 313"
1966	Clown Alley	Pickpocket Clown	CBS television film
1974	Betrayal	Helen Mercer	ABC Movie of the Week
1974	Match Game	Herself	Game show: one week/5 episodes
1974	Tattletales	Herself	Game show: one week/5 episodes with husband Frank
1976	The Quest	Miss Sally	Episode: "Day of Outrage"
1979	The Love Boat	Nora Knox	Episode: "The Oldies But Goodies..."
1982	The Best Little Special in Texas	Herself	TV Movie Documentary
1983	Hart to Hart	Big Sam	Episode: "The Wayward Hart"
1984	The Edge of Night	Dr. Juliana Stanhower	June 19–29, 1984[16]
1986	Brothers	Carlotta	Episode: "A Penny a Dance"
1987	Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge	Kitty Russell	TV movie Including flashbacks to Gunsmoke episodes
1989	The New Dragnet	Mrs. Sylvia Wilson	Episode: "Nouveau Gypsies", (final appearance)