Amanda Blake is an American television actress. Amanda Blake is best known for her portrayal of Miss Kitty Russell on the western television series Gunsmoke. She also starred in the 1950 film Stars In My Crown as Faith Radmore Samuels.
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Early life and Childhood
Amanda Blake was born on February 20, 1929, in Buffalo, New York.
She died on August 16, 1989, at the age of 60, from a variety of health problems.
Louise (née Puckett) Neill is her father’s name, and Jesse Neill is her mother’s.
Her father was employed as a banker. Amanda’s zodiac sign is Pisces, and she is of English and Scottish descent.
Her given name is Beverly Louise Neill. When it came to her family, she was the only child of Louise and Jesse Neill.
Education Details
Amanda Blake’s parents transferred to Claremont, California, when she was still in middle school, and she graduated from Claremont High School.
She later enrolled at Pomona College, but due to her active involvement in cultural and theatre performances, she was devoting more time to her acting career than to her studies.
She did, however, graduate from Amherst Central High School.
Professional Career
Blake has had an interest in the world of acting since she was a teenager.
Before she became an actress, she worked as a telephone operator.
She began her acting career full-time, doing summer stock in New England, then theater and radio in Buffalo, and finally movies in Hollywood.
She painted landscapes and backdrops while playing in stock companies and a small theater.
Her first film appearance was in MGM’s Stars in My Crown (1950), and her first tv appearance was in Schlitz Playhouse: Double Exposure (1952).
Her famous appearance as Miss Kitty in the classic western series Gunsmoke, which aired from 1955 to 1974, made her famous in 1955.
She has also appeared in a few Hollywood films, including the 1952 western Cattle Town and Miss Robin Crusoe, a 1954 version of the Robinson Crusoe adventure.
In 1988, she appeared in two feature films: B.O.R.N. and The Boost, a drug-addiction thriller starring James Woods.
Similarly, in 1957, she appeared as Betty Lavon-Coate in Rod Cameron’s crime drama State Trooper in the episode “Coate with Many Shades.”
Amanda was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Artists at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 1968.
In 1958 and 1966, she was chosen as the third artist after Tom Mix and Gary Cooper.
Similarly, she worked on a series of television programs, including a regular comedic routine on The Red Skeleton Show, comedy appearances on the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, as a panelist on the long-running Tattletales, Hollywood Squares, and the 1970s revival of Match Sports.
Amanda has received several honors and has been nominated for several others.
She starred in the fictitious tv show “Gunsmoke,” for which she received two “Western Heritage Awards” in 1967 and 1972. She also won the “Golden Boot Honors” in 1985.
She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the Dramatic Series “Gunsmoke” in 1959.
She was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards for “Best Supporting Actress – Television” for her role in “Gunsmoke” (1955) in 1970, 1971, and 1972, respectively.
Amanda went into semi-retirement after Gunsmoke and now lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
She took on few film or television assignments, preferring to spend her time with her animals.
She was well-known for taking her pet lion, Kemo, onto the set of Gunsmoke.
Kemo lived in Amanda’s home’s animal compound, where Amanda and her partner, Frank Gilbert, ran an experimental breeding program for cheetahs.
The pair was among the first to successfully breed cheetahs in captivity.
Seven generations of cheetahs were bred by the couple.
Blake and others founded the Arizona Animal Rights League in 1971.
It is also the state’s oldest and biggest “no-kill” animal shelter.
Similarly, in 1985, she contributed to the creation of the Performing Animal Welfare Society.
She dedicated a considerable sum of time and resources to the efforts of this welfare society.
She even went to Africa to do so.
Amanda was also a founding executive 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.
This serves as a safe haven for free-roaming African hoofed animals.
The majority of them were destined for exotic animal auctions or hunting ranches.
Amanda was a big tobacco smoker, so she underwent oral cancer surgery in 1977.
She also got involved in the American Cancer Society.
She then went on to make fundraising appearances around the world.
Furthermore, she won the society’s annual Courage Award in 1984, which was awarded to her by then-US President Ronald Reagan.
She died on August 16, 1989, at the age of 60. Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, California, was where she died.
Any popular media outlets later speculated that Amanda died of AIDS, as Blake’s doctor said.
Her close friends insisted she was not a heroin addict or sexually promiscuous.
As a result, she may have gotten the disease from a previous partner.
Despite this, Amanda’s official death certificate claimed that she died from “cardio-pulmonary arrest due to liver failure and CMV Hepatitis.”
Net worth and Salary
Speaking of Amanda Blake’s earnings, she was a well-known television actress who made a good living from her career.
Amanda, on the other hand, has not reported her precise net worth.
However, some online outlets report her net worth at the time of her death in 1989 to be $500 thousand.
More Facts of Amanda Blake
| Real Name | Amanda Blake |
| Nick Name | Amanda |
| Gender | Female |
| Famous As | Actress |
| Age | 92years old |
| Birthday | 20 Feb 1929 |
| Birthplace | Buffalo, New York |
| Birth Sign | Pisces |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | English and Scottish |
| Religion | N/A |
| Height | 5 feet 6 inches (1.68m) |
| Weight | approx. 61Kg |
| Body Measurements | 37-25-37 |
| Bra Cup Size | N/A |
| Eye Color | Blue |
| Hair Color | Ginger |
| Shoe Size | N/A |
| Boyfriend | N/A |
| Spouse | Mark Spaeth (1984–1985) |
| Net Worth | $500 thousand |
| Favorite Foods | N/A |
| Brands | N/A |
| Hobbies | N/A |
Relationship Status
Amanda was a married woman, according to her marital status.
In 1954, she married Don Whitman for the first time. They were together for a year and seven months.
On the 21st of August 1956, they vote to split. She then married an Australian golfer named Jason Seymour Day Jr.
They dated for a year before marrying on August 15, 1964. They divorced on June 28, 1967.
Amanda soon began dating Frank Gilbert for two months.
They married on June 30, 1967, and remained married for 14 years. She was divorced in 1982.
Her love life was continued with Mark Edward Spaeth, an Austin, Texas businessman and City Councilman.
She married Mark on April 28, 1984, but they divorced soon after when Mark died of pneumonia in 1985, at the age of 45.
Body Measurements
Amanda has white eyes and an amazing and charming personality.
She was adorable with her short ginger hair and blue eyes.
Similarly, she stood 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 61 kilograms.
Her chest-waist-arm dimensions are 37-25-37 inches, and she wears a dress size 8 in the United States.
Social Media
There were no social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook in the 1990s.
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Trivia
- Amanda is an American television actress best known for her portrayal of Miss Kitty Russell on the western television series Gunsmoke.
- Blake starred in the fictitious tv show “Gunsmoke,” for which she received two “Western Heritage Awards” in 1967 and 1972.
- She was a big tobacco smoker, so she underwent oral cancer surgery in 1977.
- She died on August 16, 1989, at the age of 60.
- Amanda, on the other hand, has not reported her precise net worth.
