Robert Blake

Biography for Robert Blake

American actor who began as a child in Our Gang comedies and reappeared as a powerful adult performer of leading and character roles. Born in New Jersey, the young Mickey Gubitosi won a role in MGM's Our Gang series the age of five. As one of the more prominent children in the Gang, he gained attention for his cute good looks and his lovable, if somewhat melancholy, personality. In 1940, he took on the stage name Bobby Blake (though he continued to use the name Mickey Gubitosi in the Our Gang series for another three years) and began playing child roles in a wide range of films. He gained a good deal of fame as the Indian sidekick Little Beaver in the Red Ryder series of Westerns. Though roles were sporadic as he grew to manhood, he was never long off the screen (except for a period of military service, 1954- 1956). But despite some fine work in films like Pork Chop Hill (1959) and Town Without Pity (1961), his career did not take off until his stunning portrayal of killer Perry Smith in In Cold Blood (1967). A number of telling performances in films of the next decade, stardom in a popular television series ("Baretta" (1975)), and several ruefully comic appearances as a guest on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962) made him a popular figure even as his personal difficulties increased. Consumed with anger over his treatment by his family and the studio as a child, he denigrated his early work, suffered bouts of difficulty with drugs, and became known as a difficult, perfectionistic person to work with. He quit his successful TV series "Hell Town" (1985) when his personal demons became overwhelming. After a self-imposed exile of nearly eight years, during which he struggled to right his life, he successfully returned to films and television work, appearing renewed and more confident in himself and his work. But in 2001, the murder of his wife Bonnie Bakley thrust Blake into the limelight in a different way. Admittedly having married Bakley through the coercion of her pregnancy, a routine Bakley had apparently tried with various other celebrities, Blake made no denial of his distaste for the woman, but was by all accounts thrilled with the daughter born to them. Blake was arrested for his wife's murder, but the presumption of innocence trumped what jurors believed to be flimsy evidence, and Blake was acquitted in a trial which made worldwide headlines. Reportedly broke from legal costs, Blake indicated hopefulness that he might be allowed to return to acting work.

Robert Blake was born on September 18, 1933 in Nutley in New Jersey. From the age of 6, Robert Blake is running in the series of films Our Gang where he embodies Mickey. He then continues with the Western Red Rider series where he plays the young Indian Little Beavor. Robert Blake is best known for his role as Tony Baretta in the TV Baretta series. He also played Father Noah Rivers in the TV series Hell Town. You can see Robert Blake in many films including Money Train, the biggest story ever told, Broaded Property, Lost Highway.

Robert Blake is an American actor known for his role in the film "Baretta" and for being accused of the murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley. He was born on September 18, 1933 in Nutley, New Jersey.

Blake began his acting career at the age of 5 by appearing in movies and television shows. He then played in many films, notably "in Cold Blood" from 1967 and "Electra Glide in Blue" from 1973. His best known role is that of Tony Baretta in the television series "Baretta", broadcast from 1975 to 1978 .

In 2001, Blake was accused of the murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley, who had been killed in his car in Los Angeles in 1999. He was acquitted of these accusations in 2005, but was found guilty by a civil court and sentenced to pay damages to the Bakley family.

Since the affair of the murder of his wife, Blake has continued to work as an actor, but he has not found the same popularity as before. In 2011, he published a book entitled "Tales of a Rascal: What I Did For Love", in which he recounts his life and his experience of American justice.

Photos

Filmography

Trivia

• Born at 8:30am EDT.
• Walked away from his career 1986-93.
• Blake's father, James Gubitosi, was a blacksmith for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) with show business aspirations. He eventually quit the WPA and started a song and dance act with his wife, Elizabeth Gubitosi. He eventually added their three children to the act, billing them as "The Three Little Hillbillies". In 1938, he took them to Los Angeles, where the couple worked as a gardener and a maid while trying to get work for their children. Blake said neither parent was loving. His father spent every cent his son earned and beat him as he descended into alcoholism.
• He received accolades for his performance as a killer who goes to the gallows in 1967's In Cold Blood (1967), and he won a 1975 Emmy for Baretta (1975) (TV), but his career had been stalled for years.
• After over a year following her death, he was arrested for the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley. He was acquitted on 16th March 2005. Eight months later, however, in a rebuke to the jury in the criminal case, a jury in a civil suit brought on behalf of her children found Blake liable for the murder and ordered him to pay over $30 million in damages.
• Almost had the role of Jim Rockford on "The Rockford Files" (1974), but Stephen J. Cannell thought that, since Rockford didn't like to fight, the diminuitive Blake would have seemed too cowardly in the role.
• To prepare for the role of Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins had watched Blake's performance in In Cold Blood (1967) several times (Hopkins said this having visited Blake, whom he didn't know personally, in prison after being accused of murdering his wife).
• Passed on Ratzo Ritzo in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and lost out on a role in The Godfather (1972) (presumably in the role of Michael or Sonny). He also turned down the role of Angel in The Wild Bunch (1969).
• Appears in the film Lost Highway (1997), about a man who murders his wife. It was inspired, according to David Lynch, by the O.J. Simpson case. Blake later became the centre of another high-profile wife-killing case in real life.
• Although he is of Italian descent, for many years he specialised in playing either Latino characters or Native Americans.

Quotes

Every time you think you got it made, old Mother Nature kicks you in the scrotum.

[About his roles as Tony Baretta and Father Noah Hardstep in "Baretta" (1975) and "Hell Town" (1985), respectively]: There are more similarities than differences. They both care a lot about people and they both get impatient with the system if the system seems to be keeping them from doing their jobs. And they both ain't afraid to do a little scuffling to get the job done.

[Commenting on his difficult childhood and finding success as an actor]: Being locked in the closets, and beat up, and burned, and sexual stuff and to come out from under it, I mean, it's lovely. I mean, most people like me end up on death row, or in the graveyards, or in prison.

Family

• Spouse : Bonnie Lee Bakley (15 November 2000 - 4 May 2001) (her death) 1 child, Sondra Blake (25 November 1961 - 1983) (divorced) 2 children
• Father of Noah Blake.
• Daughter, Rose Lenore Sophia Blake (with Bonnie Lee Bakley) was born June 2000.
• Blake's wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, was shot in the head and killed while sitting in her car waiting for her husband outside of a restaurant. [4 May 2001]

Author of the card

• Creation date: 01/07/2003 by abdest