Amanda Blake

Overview

Amanda Blake was born in Buffalo, NY, of English and Scottish descent. She and her parents moved to Claremont, California, while Amanda was still in high school, and she graduated from Claremont High. She enrolled at Pomona College but, due to her avid participation in community and theater productions, she was devoting much more time to acting than her schoolwork. Amanda started on a full acting schedule, doing summer stock in New England. She followed that up with theater and radio acting in Buffalo and then movies in Hollywood. While acting in small theater and stock companies she also painted backdrops and scenery. She was still in her teens when she debuted in MGM"s Stars in My Crown (1950), and her first television role was in Double Exposure (1952). Her most famous role, however, came in 1955, when she starred in the classic western series Gunsmoke (1955) as "Miss Kitty" Russell, the feisty madame and proprietor of Dodge City's Long Branch Saloon opposite James Arness' Marshal Matt Dillon.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Hafker thehuntzie@yahoo.com (qv;s & corrections by A. Nonymous)

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1968.
Smoked 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day until being diagnosed with oral cancer in 1980.
Held the record for being the actress who played the same character for the longest time (19 years) on television, until Mariska Hargitay surpassed her with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
Her death certificate listed the immediate cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest due to liver failure and cytomegalo virus (CMV) hepatitis. CMV hepatitis is AIDS-related, according to Sacramento (CA) internist Dr. Lou Nishimura. She was believed to have contracted the AIDS virus from her last husband, Mark Spaeth, a member of the city council of Austin, Texas. The openly bisexual Spaeth (1939-1985) also died of complications of the disease.
Before making it in show business, she worked as a telephone operator.