Amanda Blake Accepted Her Fate but Told No One Death Was Near

Amanda Blake

 Amanda Blake Accepted Her Fate, 

but Told No One Death Was Near

Amanda Blake was a beloved  film and television actress that audiences will likely most fondly  remember from her nearly two-decade-long tenure as the character of Miss Kitty on the  long-running Western television series Gunsmoke. 

Amanda made her exit from  the series following its 19th season, and the show would be canceled only a year later.  Gun smoke ended in 1975, and Amanda would pass away a little over a decade after. Although it was initially suggested that the actress had died of oral cancer related to her longtime  smoking habit, it later was revealed that her cause of death had been something more controversial, which she had kept secret. 

Join us as we explore how Amanda Blake  accepted her fate, but told no one, death was near.

Gunsmoke Couldn’t Last Without Amanda Blake 

Fans of the long-running Western television series Gunsmoke were devastated following the show’s 19th season when actress Amanda Blake  announced that she was going to be giving up the role of Miss Kitty for good. Miss Kitty had  become one of the show’s most popular characters, and the series would only end up lasting for  another year without Amanda as part of its cast. On Gunsmoke, Miss Kitty was the character in  charge of the Long Branch Saloon, and she was tough as nails! 

Audiences loved watching Amanda  Blake in the role of the tough Western woman, and especially adored the chemistry that was  exuded whenever the actress was on the screen with the show’s main character, Matt Dillon. Actor James Arness played the character of Marshal Matt Dillon, and he and Amanda Blake had  plenty of great interactions on the show. By the time that Amanda Blake decided to  make her exit from the long-running Western  series Gunsmoke, she had already appeared in well  over 500 episodes! The actress had experienced just about enough of the same old thing and was  anxiously awaiting the chance to take a permanent break from filming the series that she had been  tied to for nearly two decades. Following Amanda’s exit from Gun smoke, the actress went into a period  of semi-retirement at her Phoenix, Arizona, home.  

According to the actress, she wanted to spend  as much time as she could with her animals. Now that she was rich with Gunsmoke money  and essentially never needed to work again, she finally had the time and energy  to dedicate to her true passion.

Amanda Blake’s True Passion Was Animal Rights 

Amanda Blake

Amanda Blake was always an animal lover, and she took her love of animals to a level that few other  animal lovers have ever gotten the chance to. For instance, the actress once found her name in  the tabloids as a result of an incident where she brought her pet lion to the set of Gunsmoke. In  addition to having a pet lion, Amanda and her third husband, whom she was married from 1967 to  1982, also had several cheetahs. Amanda’s third husband was a man by the name of Frank Gilbert,  and he was just as much into animals as Amanda was. Together, the two ran an experimental  cheetah-breeding program out of their house that actually ended up being fairly successful!  Amanda and her third husband are credited with being some of the very first people to  successfully breed cheetahs in captivity.  

The pair were said to have raised seven  generations of cheetahs, though this notable excursion only stood as the tip of the iceberg  when it came to Amanda’s immense love of animals. Although the fact that Amanda Blake and her  husband raised cheetahs in captivity may suggest  that the two didn’t care very much about animal  welfare, this wasn’t the case! Amanda especially was always very outspoken about animal rights,  and even became a notable animal-rights activist during her lifetime. It seems that Amanda and her  husband were breeding cheetahs altruistically, as they had a soft spot for the relatively rare  animal species. Amanda also found many other ways to exercise her love for animals  over the course of her lifetime, and she even helped establish a few notable  foundations that still help animals today!

The first animal-rights foundation that Amanda  Blake helped establish was named the Arizona Animal Welfare League. The foundation is still  around today, and its location has developed the reputation of being both the biggest and the  oldest “no-kill” animal shelter in the state of Arizona. Following the establishment of the  Arizona Animal Welfare League, Amanda went on to help finance the creation of the Performing  Animal Welfare Society in 1985. Like the Arizona Animal Welfare League, the Performing  Animal Welfare Society is still around today, and still does plenty of great work! The  foundation goes by the cutesy acronym of PAWS, and Amanda dedicated many  of her final years to it.

Amanda Blake Passed Away in 1989 

While it seems that Amanda Blake was doing some incredible work with animals towards  the end of her lifetime, this sadly all came to an end with her tragic 1989 death. Although it  was initially suggested that the longtime smoker had passed away from oral cancer, it was  later revealed that Amanda’s cause of death had been something a good deal more controversial.  

Amanda Blake Was Awarded by Ronald Reagan

Amanda Blake

In addition to helping establish the two aforementioned animal-rights foundations,  Amanda Blake also did some other notable work involving animal rights over the course  of her lifetime. She was a notable member of the Humane Society of the United States  and was awarded with the society’s Courage Award in 1984 for her many contributions to the  world of animal rights. The man who presented Amanda with her award was none other than  President of the United States Ronald Reagan!  

Following Amanda’s 1989 death, the Amanda Blake  Memorial Wildlife Refuge was opened in 1997. The refuge resides in Herald, California,  and serves as a sanctuary for exotic African  animals that have found themselves in the United  States. This kind of thing occurs more often than viewers might expect, as exotic animals are  routinely trafficked for various purposes.

How Did Amanda Blake Die? 

Amanda Blake was only 60  years old when she passed away on August  16, 1989. The initial cause of death that was given to fans of the actress was oral  cancer, which the actress had a history of. Amanda Blake had been a longtime smoker  in the years leading up to her death, and had suffered from oral cancer during the 1970s.  The actress had to undergo surgery as a result of oral cancer in 1977, only a few  years after making her exit from Gun smoke. As a result of Amanda’s history with oral  cancer, the public took the announcement that the actress had died from the illness  at face value. However, it was later revealed that the true cause of Amanda’s death had been  something else entirely, and something that the actress had understandably wanted to keep  a secret from all but her closest friends.

Upon Amanda’s 1989 passing, the actress left all  of her money to PAWS. The actress had dedicated the majority of her time and energy in the years  leading up to her passing to the foundation, and she wanted the foundation to continue  doing excellent work after she was gone. It’s clear that Amanda was passionate about  animals and likely put a lot of thought into leaving behind her fortune to PAWS. However, a few  of the actress’s relatives had problems with this.

Amanda Blake Didn’t Die from Oral Cancer 

Amanda Blake

When it was announced that Amanda Blake was leaving all of her money to PAWS, several of  her relatives got angry and decided that they were going to try and claim that Amanda  was mentally unsound upon her passing and that the money was rightfully theirs. A  legal battle ensued, and it was during this legal battle that it was finally revealed what  had truly caused Amanda to pass away in 1989. As it turns out, Amanda Blake suffered from  AIDS. 

The actress’s true cause of death was liver failure, which had been brought about as a  result of her illness. This made Amanda one of the very first prominent Hollywood stars to pass away  as a result of AIDS, with another early example being Golden Age icon Rock Hudson. The disease  was still fairly new and relatively controversial, so it makes sense that Amanda didn’t want  the public to know about her diagnosis.

Amanda Blake had been diagnosed  with AIDS a year before her death.  

According to those closest to the actress, she  took the news incredibly well. Amanda remained optimistic about her AIDS diagnosis up until the  moment of her passing, with the late actress’s agent having recalled that some of the last  words that she spoke to him saw her asking him to find her a new Hollywood role. The actress hadn’t  worked much during the later years of her life, but her AIDS diagnosis had apparently  made her anxious to start again.

How Did Amanda Blake Catch AIDS? 

While it’s clear that AIDS-related complications ended up being the cause of Amanda Blake’s death,  it’s not clear how exactly the actress managed to catch the disease. Although Amanda had four  husbands over the course of her lifetime, she was never known to be especially sexually promiscuous.  In addition, the actress was never known to have had any kind of problems with drugs that may have led her to contract the disease. It’s notable that Amanda’s fourth and final husband also passed  away from AIDS. 

Amanda and her fourth husband, Mark Spaeth got married in 1984, and the man passed  away only a year later as a result of AIDS. While Mark Spaeth passing away of AIDS  shortly before Amanda Blake received her own AIDS diagnosis may suggest that the actress  caught the disease from her fourth husband, most actually believe that Mark  likely caught the disease from Amanda.  

The pervading theory is that Amanda  must’ve caught AIDS incidentally while making one of her numerous visits to  the continent of Africa to do wildlife work. Actress Amanda Blake received her AIDS diagnosis a  year before her 1989 death, though she didn’t let it stop her from making the most out of her last  remaining days.

 Now it’s time to hear from you:  

Did you know that Gun smoke’s Amanda Blake was  a renowned animal-rights activist, and that she helped establish numerous animal-rights  foundations that are still doing incredible work today? 

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