Jon Blake was driving home late on December 1, 1986, after the final day's filming of The Lighthorsemen (1987) when his station wagon, swerving to avoid a car stopped on the wrong side of the road with its lights off, struck another vehicle. He sustained permanent brain damage and existed in a locked-in state until his death.

Blake's mother (as his legal guardian) sued the man whose car was stopped on the wrong side of the road on Blake's behalf. On December 5, 1995, the New South Wales Supreme Court ruled that Blake should be compensated for the loss of potential earnings as a star in the United States. After taking evidence from actors, directors, and film critics who indicated his career could have been as big as Mel Gibson's, the court awarded him $32 million in damages. This was later reduced to $7 million after the defence appealed.

Blake was cared for by his mother Mascot and a team of nurses at his mother's home in Sydney until her death in 2007. Blake's son Dustin then took over as his primary caregiver. They relocated to a house on the New South Wales Central Coast in the months before Blake's death.