Amanda Blake was best known for her long-running role of Miss Kitty on the “Gunsmoke” television show. But, especially after she retired from that show, in 1974, she was noted for her work in support of animal rights issues.
Blake, who became familiar with the Tucson area during filming of the tv show, had a home in Phoenix. She became interested in the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and for several years served on the advisory board and board of trustees.
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1973 Star files
Amanda Blake and ASDM director Mervin W. Larson at the cat enclosure dedication.
In 1973, she was here to dedicate the museum’s new cat enclosure. Also at the dedication was Congressman Mo Udall. The duo was back again in 1986, to dedicate the new mountain habitat enclosure, which among other animals, would be home to the mountain lions. Udall quipped that he and Blake held “a Guinness Book record for dedicating cat houses.”
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After leaving “Gunsmoke,” the actress did not give up her acting career, but she was hoping to provide more focused assistance to wildlife. She said she was involved in to many programs, she needed a niche. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’m really going to have to find a special road for myself,” she said.
She was so involved with wildlife that she had 32 animals on her Phoenix property, including cheetahs, a lion and a kit fox. In 1974, she was in the news for keeping her menagerie, while a 13-year-old Phoenix boy had a pet quail seized.
But, Blake and her husband, proved that they had permission from the Game & Fish Department. Well, all except for the five cheetah cubs who were born about the time she was under investigation, in 1974.
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1978 Star files
Amanda Blake
Frequently, she made appearances in southern Arizona for various causes. She was in Tombstone in 1982 to help raise funds for an animal shelter and she was at the 1st Blessing of the Animals held in Santa Cruz County in 1983. In 1988, she was at the opening of the new home for the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Arthropod Resource Center.
But, it wasn’t just for the animals that she donated her time. In 1981, she marched in a local rally in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. She also was involved in raising money for the new UA Cancer Center, in 1983.
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1981 Star files
Blake at a Tucson ERA rally in Reid Park.
Blake died in 1989, at the age of 60. She had battled cancer in her mouth, in 1978. Cancer was originally listed as the cause of death. But, it was later revealed she had died of AIDS related complications. One of her former husbands had died of an AIDS-related disease.
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