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]
| 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 |
| 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) |
