American actor, a child star in the Our Gang film comedies at the age of six who rounded out the ‘40s as the plucky Indian boy in the popular western movie series Red Ryder. Starting out as Mickey Gubitosi, he took the stage name of Bobby Blake in 1940, though he continued to use his birth name in the Our Gang series for another three years. He was an adult star of the films In Cold Blood (1967) and Tell Them Willie Boy is Here (1969) and the TV series Baretta (1975-1978); a career marked by ups and downs.
With a difficult, hard working childhood, Blake’s first exposure in show business was at age two. He related that he was abused physically, emotionally and sexually as a child by his folks, a once-time song and dance team, and spent much of his life in a rage. He and his brother, sister and mother were all victims of a drunken, violent step-father who would beat them mercilessly.
After being expelled from five schools, he was drafted in 1950, a “has-been” by the time he was 17. Rebellious, with periods of deep depression, he was compulsively resistant to authority and incapable of delegating authority. He spent time in the army stockade, and managed to get involved with heroin. Through his years he tried many of the various forms of self-destruct; drugs, alcohol and fights.
When he returned to Hollywood in 1952, Blake worked as a stuntman, and in 1953 began to get TV roles. Baretta debuted mid-season in January 1975 and was an immediate hit with a subsequent Emmy win that year that put Robert Blake on top of the world. From 1975-1978, Baretta held a top spot on TV, a set that often resembled a war zone in which Blake was accused of being “unprofessional” and tyrannical. He had his wife Sondra cast as a frequent guest-star and began ignoring directors he didn’t like, effectively directing the show himself. Baretta was canceled in 1978 and Blake’s marriage ended soon after that.
Finding himself persona non grata, he became a “walking nervous breakdown,” holding himself together with uppers and downers. Prior to Baretta he had been strung out on heroin for two years during which time he stole, smashed motorcycles into trees, boozed and ate pills by the handful. “Self Destruction?” Blake told a reporter, “I could write a book.”
After the series finished, he drifted aimlessly back into an aggressive down-hill run. His 13-year marriage folded in 1980 before he stopped long enough to take a long hard look and take charge of his own life with some drastic changes. He had custody of both of his kids, Noah and Delinah.
Hollywood was not convinced that Blake was housebroken and it was a long period of unemployment before a turnaround. In 1981, Robert Blake roared back with five TV-movies that year, three in the role of detective Joe Dancer. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 1982, starred as Joe Dancer again in 1983 and as Jimmy Hoffa in the miniseries Blood Feud. He put himself on the line, signing a contract that his entire salary was in escrow subject to forfeit if he failed to conduct himself in a properly professional manner. On the last day of shooting, Blake collected the proudest wages of his career for his comeback.
In 1986 he was working on a series, Hell Town, when he walked away from show business into his own private wilderness for seven years. He dredged out his years of being hurt, how deeply and how long as a child, and looked at his years of tantrums at work, his drinking bouts, his fights and 30 years of therapy and wondered why he had not killed himself or someone else.
When he came to some sort of compromise with his anger, he once more knocked on doors looking for work. He was cast in the CBS thriller Judgment Day: The John List Story, which premiered in late February 1993.
Blake married his girlfriend, Bonny Lee Bakley, on 19 November 2000 (born 7 June 1956). The couple had a daughter together, Rose Lenore Sophia, born on 2 June 2000.
On 4 May 2001, Bonny and Robert had dinner at Vitello’s, a studio city restaurant. They returned to their car but Blake went back into the restaurant to get a handgun that he had left there, a gun he was carrying as his wife was in fear of her life due to a threat. In the few minutes while Blake was gone, an unknown assailant shot and killed Bonny with one shot to the head as she sat in their Dodge Stealth. While his wife hemorrhaged and lay dying in the car, Robert Blake ran in a panic to the nearby home of Sean Stanek for help. “He was falling apart,” Stanek told the press, “He was sick, he was throwing up, he was shaking, he was crying. He was really messed up.” Blake entered the hospital for high blood pressure that night and was released early the next day. He was questioned and released and was not initially a suspect. Within a few days his status changed to that of a chief suspect in the investigation into the murder of his wife.
Hollywood could hardly have penned a more lurid case. Bonny turned out to a “grifter,” a con artist whose scam was to lure men by sending nude photos and a request for “gas money” for her to come visit them. Her stated goal for years was to marry a famous actor and she apparently got her wish by playing the missing-birth-control game. Bonny Bakley had recently told her half-brother Peter Carlyon that she feared for her life. Carlyon claims that Blake told Bonny Bakley, “There’s a bullet with your name on it.”
On 18 April 2002, Los Angeles police investigators arrested Robert Blake for the murder of Bonnie Bakley. Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks said at the time that he anticipated Blake would be charged with two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of murder with special circumstances – a charge that could lead to the death penalty. Blake’s handyman and bodyguard for the last two years, Earle Caldwell, was also arrested “for conspiracy to commit murder of Ms. Bakley,” Parks said. Following an extensive investigation, police said they obtained arrest warrants against Blake and Caldwell on the morning of 18 April 2002. Both men were taken into custody – Blake at his sister’s home in the gated Hidden Hills community, Caldwell in Burbank – around 6 PM (9 PM EDT). On 16 March 2005 in Van Nuys, California, Blake was acquitted of his wife’s murder.
Eight months after being acquitted of murdering his wife, the actor was found liable in the civil suit that charged him with her wrongful death. The judgment rendered on 18 November 2005 in Burbank, California awarded Bonny Lee Bakley’s children $30 million in damages.
Robert Blake married his third wife Pamela Hudak in 2017 and they divorced in 2019. He died from heart disease in Los Angeles on 9 March 2023 at the age of 89.
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