Amanda Blake was an American actress known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the television western Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

.

Early life and career

Born Beverly Louise Neill in Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, she was a telephone operator

Telephone operator

A telephone operator is either* a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls , calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain...

 before taking up acting.

Nicknamed "the Young Greer Garson

Greer Garson

Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, and 1946. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award...

," she became best known for her 19-year stint as the saloon-keeper Miss Kitty on the television series Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

from 1955 until 1974. In 1968, Blake was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers

Hall of Great Western Performers

The Hall of Great Western Performers is a Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. It is sometimes referred to as the "Western Performers Hall of Fame"...

 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...

 in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

. She was the third performer inducted, after Tom Mix

Tom Mix

Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...

 and Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper

Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

, who were selected in 1958 and 1966 respectively.

Because of her continuing role on television, Blake rarely had time for films. She appeared in a TV comedy routine with Red Skelton

Red Skelton

Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

 and was a panelist on the long-running Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...

and Match Game

Match Game

Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...

 74. In 1957, she guest-starred as Betty Lavon-Coate in the episode "Coate of Many Colors" of on Rod Cameron

Rod Cameron

Rod Cameron was a Canadian-born movie actor whose career extended from the 1930s to the 1970s. He appeared in horror, war, action and science fiction movies, but is best remembered for his many Westerns....

's syndicated

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 series western-themed crime drama, State Trooper

State Trooper (TV series)

State Trooper is a half-hour television crime drama set in the 1950s American West, starring Rod Cameron as Rod Blake, an officer of the Nevada State Troopers. The series aired 104 episodes in syndication from September 25, 1956, to June 25, 1959...

.

She made one final film appearance in 1988's The Boost

The Boost

The Boost is a 1988 drama film directed by Harold Becker. It stars James Woods, Sean Young, John Kapelos, Steven Hill, June Chandler and -- in her final role and first Hollywood film in 33 years -- Amanda Blake.-Plot:...

, a drug-addiction drama starring James Woods

James Woods

James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...

 and Sean Young

Sean Young

Sean Young is an American actress, best known for her performance in films from the 1980s such as Blade Runner, Dune, and No Way Out.-Early life:...

.

Animal welfare

After Gunsmoke, Blake went into semi-retirement at her home in Phoenix

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, taking on only a few film and TV projects. A lover of animals, she joined with others to form the Arizona Animal Welfare League in 1971, today the oldest and largest "no-kill" animal shelter

Animal shelter

An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost, or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats.Parrots, for example, are the third most common pet owned by people...

 in the state. In 1985, she helped finance the start-up of the Performing Animal Welfare Society

Performing Animal Welfare Society

The Performing Animal Welfare Society is a U.S. based group for abandoned or abused performing animals as well victims of the exotic animal trade. They claim 30,000 members...

 (PAWS) and devoted a great deal of time and money in support of its efforts, including travels to Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

.

Blake reportedly was a one-time board member of the Humane Society of the United States

Humane Society of the United States

The Humane Society of the United States , based in Washington, D.C., is the largest animal advocacy organization in the world. In 2009, HSUS reported assets of over US$160 million....

. In 1997, the Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge opened at Rancho Seco Park in Herald, California

Herald, California

Herald is a census-designated place in Sacramento County, California. Herald sits at an elevation of . It is located east of the City of Galt along State Route 104. The ZIP Code is 95638, and the community is inside area code 209...

. The refuge provides sanctuary for free-ranging African hoofed wildlife

Ungulate

Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders of mammals, of which six to eight survive...

, most of whom were originally destined for exotic animal auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

s or hunting ranches.

Declining health and death

In 1980, Blake was diagnosed with a form of mouth cancer

Oral cancer

Oral cancer is a subtype of head and neck cancer, is any cancerous tissue growth located in the oral cavity. It may arise as a primary lesion originating in any of the oral tissues, by metastasis from a distant site of origin, or by extension from a neighboring anatomic structure, such as the...

. A former smoker of two-to-three packs a day, in 1982 Blake spoke against smoking by testifying for new warning labels for cigarette packages, before a United State House of Representatives subcommittee: "I am a victim of oral cancer, a victim of cigarette smoking. When my doctor told me I had cancer of the mouth, I didn't believe it. I had never even heard of cancer of the mouth, yet I had it." She told the subcommittee: "I believe that I would not have smoked had I seen a label on a cigarette package or in a cigarette ad that said 'Warning: Cigarette smoking may cause death from heart disease, cancer or emphysema."

Blake died on August 16, 1989, at Mercy General Hospital

Mercy General Hospital

Mercy General Hospital is a hospital located in the eastern part of Sacramento, California. The hospital has 343 beds and nearly 400 doctors. The Mercy Heart Institute and the Mercy Stroke Center are key features of the hospital. The hospital can be accessed by taking the J Street exit off the west...

 in Sacramento, California

Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

. Ms. Blake died due to AIDS-related complications. According to her doctor, Sacramento, California

Sacramento, California

Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

, internist Dr. Lou Nishimura, she had throat cancer at the time of her death, but he added, "That wasn't the reason that she died." Her death certificate, however, listed the immediate cause as cardiopulmonary arrest due to liver failure and CMV hepatitis

Cytomegalovirus

Cytomegalovirus is a viral genus of the viral group known as Herpesviridae or herpesviruses. It is typically abbreviated as CMV: The species that infects humans is commonly known as human CMV or human herpesvirus-5 , and is the most studied of all cytomegaloviruses...

.

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	Stars In My Crown	Faith Radmore Samuels
1950	Duchess of Idaho Duchess of Idaho Duchess of Idaho is a musical romantic comedy produced in 1950 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it was the fourth film pairing Esther Williams and Van Johnson...	Linda Kinston
1951	China Corsair China Corsair China Corsair is a 1951 adventure film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Jon Hall and Lisa Ferraday. This film was the film debut of Ernest Borgnine.-Plot synopsis:Tamara rescues shipwrecked McMillen...	Jane Richards
1951		Telephone Girl	Uncredited
1952	Cattle Town (1952 film)	Townsperson
1953	Lili Lili Lili is an American film. An MGM release, it stars Leslie Caron as a touchingly naïve French girl, whose emotional relationship with a carnival puppeteer is conducted through the medium of four puppets...	Peach Lips (red-haired dame)
1954	About Mrs. Leslie About Mrs. Leslie About Mrs. Leslie is a drama film directed by Daniel Mann and starring Shirley Booth and Robert Ryan. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 1955.-Storyline:Mrs...	Gilly
1954		Susan Ettinger
1954		Banah
1955		Birdena
1988		Barbara

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...		2 episodes
1953	Cavalcade of America Cavalcade of America Cavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented a musical, such as an adaptation of Show Boat, and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on...	Nancy Hart	Episode: "Breakfast at Nancy's"
1954	Four Star Playhouse Four Star Playhouse Four Star Playhouse is an American television anthology series that ran from 1952 to 1956, sponsored in its first bi-weekly season by The Singer Company; Bristol-Myers became an alternate sponsor when it became a weekly series in the fall of 1953...	Susan Pierce	Episode: "Vote of Confidence"
1955– 1974	Gunsmoke Gunsmoke Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....	Kitty Russell	425 episodes
1956	Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...	Carol Arlington	Episode: "Whodunit"
1957	State Trooper State Trooper (TV series) State Trooper is a half-hour television crime drama set in the 1950s American West, starring Rod Cameron as Rod Blake, an officer of the Nevada State Troopers. The series aired 104 episodes in syndication from September 25, 1956, to June 25, 1959...	Betty Lavon-Coate	Episode: "Coate of Many Colors"
1957– 1963		Ruby	7 episodes
1958	Studio One	Joan Roberts	Episode: "Tide of Corruption"
1959	Steve Canyon	Molly McIntyre	Episode: "Room 313"
1976		Miss Sally	Episode: "Day of Outrage"
1979		Nora Knox	Episode: "The Oldies But Goodies..."
1983	Hart to Hart Hart to Hart Hart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...	Big Sam	Episode: "The Wayward Hart"
1986	Brothers Brothers (TV series) Brothers is an American television sitcom that originally aired on the cable network Showtime from July 13, 1984 to July 25, 1989, totaling 115 episodes. It was produced by Gary Nardino Productions, in association with two separate divisions of Paramount; first by the Paramount Video division and...	Carlotta	Episode: "A Penny a Dance"
1989		Mrs. Sylvia Wilson	Episode: "Nouveau Gypsies"

External links