Robert Blake, a child actor who played characters on both sides of the law, including a murderous curmudgeon in “In Cold Blood” and a master-of-disguise detective in the 1970s series “Baretta,” but then became the center of the real-life man after being tried and acquitted of his wife’s murder. He died on March 9 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 89 years old.
A statement released by his niece, Noreen Austin, said Blake died of heart disease at home in Los Angeles, surrounded by family.
Robert Blake, star of the 1970s TV show “Baretta,” once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the lengthy ordeal It started with a shooting that took place on May 4 2001 when his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, was shot outside a Studio City restaurant. The story of their strange marriage, the children they produced, and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy that was played out in court.
Once hailed among the finest actors of his generation, Blake finds himself at the center of a real-life murder trial, a story far more bizarre than the one in which he starred. Many remembered him not as the rugged, dark-haired star of “Baretta,” but as a spectral, white-haired murder defendant.
In a 2002 interview with The Associated Press, while he was jailed awaiting trial, he denounced his change in status to his fans across the country: “It hurt because America is the only family I had..”
He was adamant that he had not murdered his wife and a jury eventually acquitted him. But a civil jury would find him liable for her death and order him to pay $30 million to Bakley’s family, a decision that sent him into bankruptcy. He and Buckley’s daughter, Rose Lenore, were raised by other relatives and years went by without seeing Blake until they spoke in 2019. She would tell People magazine that she called him “Robert”, not “Dad”.
It was an embarrassing end to a life in the limelight since childhood. As a youngster, he starred in the comedy “Our Gang” and starred in a film classic, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”. As an adult, he was praised for his portrayal of real-life murderer Perry Smith in the film adaptation of Truman Capote’s true crime best seller “In Cold Blood”.
His career peaked with the 1975–78 TV cop series, “Baretta”. He starred as a detective who carried a pet cockatoo on his shoulder and was fond of disguises. It was his specialty, portraying tough guys with soft hearts, and its signature line: “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time,” was often quoted.
Robert Blake won a 1975 Emmy for his portrayal of Tony Baretta, although behind the scenes the show was wracked by controversies involving the short-tempered star. He gained a reputation as one of Hollywood’s finest actors, but one of the most difficult to work with. He later admitted to struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction in his early life.
In 1993, Blake won another Emmy as the title character in “Judgment Day: The John List Story”, portraying a soft-spoken, church-going man who murdered his wife and three children.
Blake’s career had slowed considerably before the trial. He made only a handful of screen appearances after the mid-1980s; His last project was in David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” released in 1997. According to his niece, Blake spent his last years “enjoying jazz music, playing his guitar, reading poetry, and watching many Hollywood classics.”
He was born Michael James Gubitosi on September 18, 1933, in New Jersey, New Jersey. Their father, an Italian immigrant, and their mother, an Italian American, wanted their three children to succeed in show business. At age 2, Robert Blake was performing with a brother and sister in a family vaudeville act called “The Three Little Hillbillies.”
When his parents moved the family to Los Angeles, his mother found work as a movie extra for children, and little Mickey Gubitosi was plucked from the crowd by producers who cast him in the comedy “Our Gang”. He appeared in the series for five years and changed his name to Bobby Blake.
He worked with Hollywood veterans in 1946 playing young John Garfield in “Humoresque” and playing the little boy who sells an important lottery ticket to Humphrey Bogar in the Oscar-winning “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
In adulthood, she got serious film roles. The biggest success came in 1967 with “In Cold Blood”. Later films such as “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here” and “Electra Glide in Blue” were made.
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In 1961, Blake and actress Sondra Kerr married and had two children, Noah and Delinah. They got divorced in 1983.
His fateful meeting with Bakley took place in 1999 at a jazz club, where he went to escape loneliness.
“Here I was, 67 or 68 years old. My life was on hold. My career was stalled out,” he said in an interview. “I’d been alone for a long time.”
He said he had no reason to dislike Bakley: “She took me out of the stands and put me back in the arena. I had something to live for.”
When Bakley gave birth to a baby girl, she named Christian Brando – Marlon’s son – as the father. But DNA tests pointed to Blake.
Robert Blake first saw a little girl named Rosie when she was two months old and she became the center of his life. He married Bakli because of the child.
“Rosie is my blood. Rosie is calling me,” she said. “I have no doubt that Rosie and I are going to walk into the sunset together.”
Prosecutors would claim that he planned to kill Bakley in order to gain sole custody of the child and tried to hire hitmen for the job. But the evidence was tampered with and the jury rejected that theory.
On his last night alive, Blake and his wife of 44 years had dinner at a nearby restaurant, Vitello’s. He claimed that she was shot after he had dropped her off at the car and returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun she had inadvertently left behind. The police were initially baffled and Blake was not arrested until a year after the crime had been committed.
Once a wealthy man, he spent millions on his defense and wound up living on social security and a Screen Actor’s Guild pension.
In a 2006 interview with the AP a year after his acquittal, Blake said he hoped to restart his career.
“I’d like to give my best performance,” he said. “I’d like to leave a legacy for Rosie about who I am. I’m not ready for a dog and fishing pole yet. I’d like to go to bed each night desperate to wake up each morning and create some magic.”
