He won two Emmys as an actor but gained more fame at a trial that saw him acquitted of killing his wife.

Robert Blake, who began his career as a child actor on “The Little Rascals” series and then appeared in starring roles in films like “In Cold Blood,” was once hailed as among the finest actors of his generation.

His first Emmy came in 1975 for his work on the TV cop drama “Baretta.”

He became better known in 2003 as the defendant in the murder of his then wife who was shot to death in their car.  Blake maintained he’d gone back to the restaurant where they’d just dined, to recover a gun he’d left behind when Bonnie Lee Bakley was killed.

His niece released a statement confirming, Blake died peacefully yesterday in Los Angeles of heart disease.

Robert Blake was 89.