Robert Blake (actor) Totally Explained

Everything about Robert Blake Actor totally explained

Robert Blake (born September 18, 1933) is an American actor most famous for starring in the U.S. television series Baretta as well as his alleged involvement in the 2002 murder of his wife in which he was later found not guilty.

Biography

Blake was born Michael James Vincenzo Gubitosi in Nutley, New Jersey, to Giacomo Gubitosi (1906-1956) and Elizabeth Cafone (b. 1910). His brother was James Gubitosi (1930-1995) and his sister Giovanna Gubitosi.
His father was born in Italy, arriving in the United States in 1907, and his mother was an Italian-American born in New Jersey. They married in 1929. In 1930, James worked as a die setter for a can manufacturer. Eventually, James and Elizabeth began a song-and-dance act. In 1936, the three children began performing, billed as "The Three Little Hillbillies." They moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1938, where the children began working as movie extras.

Film career

As a child actor

Mickey Gubitosi's acting career began when he appeared as Toto in the MGM movie Bridal Suite (1939) starring Annabella and Robert Young. Gubitosi then began appearing in MGM's Our Gang short subjects under his real name, replacing Eugene "Porky" Lee. He appeared in 40 of the shorts between 1939 and 1944, eventually becoming the series' final lead character. James and Jovanni Gubitosi also made appearances in the series as extras.
   During his early Our Gang period, Gubitosi's character, Mickey, was often called upon to cry, and the young actor has been noted by some film critics as having been unsubtle and unconvincing. In 1942, he acquired the stage name Bobby Blake, and his character in the series was renamed "Mickey Blake". In 1944, MGM discontinued Our Gang, releasing the final short in the series, Dancing Romeo, on April 29.
   To date, Gubitosi is one of the few living Our Gang actors from the original series. Other notable surviving members are Jackie Cooper, Dorothy DeBorba, Dickie Moore, Shirley Jean Rickert, Jean Darling, Jerry Tucker, and Jackie Lynn Taylor.
   In 1944, Blake began playing an Indian boy, "Little Beaver," in the Red Ryder Western series at Republic Pictures, appearing in twenty-three of the movies until 1947. He also had roles in one of Laurel and Hardy's later films The Big Noise (1944), and the Warner Bros. movies Humoresque (1946), playing John Garfield's character as a child, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), playing the Mexican boy who sells Humphrey Bogart a winning lottery ticket, getting a glass of water thrown in his face in the process.
   According to Blake, he'd an unhappy childhood with a miserable home life and was abused by his alcoholic father. When he entered public school at age ten, he couldn't understand why the other children were hostile to him. He had fights, which led to his expulsion. When he was fourteen, he ran away from home. The next few years were a reportedly difficult period in his life.

As an adult actor

In 1950, he went into the army. When he returned to Southern California he entered Jeff Corey's acting class and began turning his life around, both personally and professionally. He matured and became a seasoned Hollywood actor, playing some choice dramatic roles in movies and television. In 1956, he was billed as Robert Blake for the first time and in 1959 turned down the role of Little Joe Cartwright in the television series Bonanza.
Blake performed in numerous theatrical motion pictures as an adult, including his starring role in The Purple Gang (1960), a gangster movie, and featured roles in such movies as Ensign Pulver (1964) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). In 1967, he starred in his acclaimed role of real-life murderer Perry Smith in In Cold Blood, which was directed by Richard Brooks, who also adapted the story for the screen from the Truman Capote non-fiction work. Blake also starred in the role of an Indian fugitive in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), a TV movie adaptation of Of Mice and Men (1981) and as a motorcycle highway patrolman in Electra Glide in Blue (1973). He played a small town stock car driver in search of a shot at the big time in Nascar in the film Corky made in 1972 by MGM. The film featured small scenes with real nascar drivers of the day such as Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough, Blake driving a customized Plymouth Barracuda across the country to meet up with a supposed contact at Talladega speedway. It was a gritty role with Blake acting an emotional rollercoaster, going back to shoot his old boss as his life disintegrates around him, his inability to "straighten up" for his wife leading to their estrangement and ultimately his downfall.
Blake is probably best known for his Emmy Award-winning role of Tony Baretta in the popular TV series Baretta (1975 to 1978), in which he played an undercover police detective who specialized in disguises. Trademarks of the show include his character's pet cockatoo, the proverbial sentence "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," and a memorable theme song "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow" written by Dave Grusin and Morgan Ames and performed by Sammy Davis, Jr. He continued to act through the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in television, including the role of Jimmy Hoffa in the miniseries Blood Feud (1983) and John List in the murder drama (1993), for which he received another Emmy. He had character parts in the theatrical movies Money Train (1995) and Lost Highway (1997). Blake also starred in another television series called Hell Town in which he played a priest working in a tough neighbourhood.

Personal life

He and actress Sondra Kerr were married in 1961 and divorced in 1983. They had two children, actor Noah Blake (born 1965) and Delinah Blake (born 1966).

Bonnie Lee Bakley

In 1999, Blake met Bonnie Lee Bakley, formerly of 6 Kossuth Street in Wharton, NJ, reportedly a woman with a history of exploiting older men for money, especially celebrities. She was seeing Christian Brando, son of Marlon Brando, during her relationship with Blake. Bakley became pregnant and told both Brando and Blake that they were the father. Initially, Bakley named the baby "Christian Shannon Brando" and stated Brando was the father of her child. Bakley wrote letters describing her dubious motives to Blake. Robert Blake ordered her to take a DNA test to prove the paternity. Blake and Bakley married November 19, 2000 after DNA tests proved that he was in fact the biological father of her child, renamed Rose. It was his second marriage, her tenth.
Although they were married, it was unconventional. Bakley lived in a small guest house behind her husband's house in the Studio City area of the San Fernando Valley.
On May 4, 2001, Blake took Bakley to an Italian dinner at Vitello's Restaurant on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. Afterward, Bakley was murdered by a gunshot to the head while sitting in the car, which was parked on a side street around the corner from the restaurant. Blake told the police that he'd gone back to the restaurant to get a gun he left at the table and was there when the shooting occurred. When questioned later, no other diners or employees recalled Blake returning to the restaurant.

Arrest and trial for murder

He was arrested on April 18, 2002, and charged in connection with the murder of his wife. His longtime bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, was also arrested and charged with conspiracy in connection with the murder. The arrest came almost one year after the murder on May 4, 2001 in Studio City, California. The final break in the case, which gave the LAPD the confidence to arrest Blake, came when a retired stuntman, Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton, agreed to testify against Blake. Hambleton alleged that Blake tried to hire him to kill Bonnie Lee Bakley. Another associate of Hambleton's, retired stuntman Gary McLarty, came forth with a similar story.
   According to author Miles Corwin, Hambleton agreed to testify against Blake only after being told he'd be subject to a Grand Jury subpoena and a pending misdemeanor charge. Hambleton's motives to testify against Blake were successfully called into question by Blake's defense team during the criminal trial.
   On April 22, Blake was charged with one count of murder with special circumstances, an offense eligible for the death penalty. He was also charged with two counts of solicitation of murder and one count of murder conspiracy. Blake pled not guilty to all charges. Caldwell was charged with a single count of murder conspiracy and also pled not guilty.
   On April 25, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office announced they wouldn't seek the death penalty against Blake should he be convicted, but prosecutors would seek a sentence of life in prison without parole.
   After Blake posted US$1 million bail, Caldwell was released on April 27. But a judge denied bail for Blake on May 1. On March 13, 2003, after almost a year in jail, Blake was granted bail, which was set at US$1.5 million, and allowed to go free to await trial.
   Blake's story inspired an episode of the TV crime show Law & Order, titled Formerly Famous. It aired on NBC on November 7, 2001.

Acquittal

On March 16, 2005, Blake was found not guilty of the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley, and of one of the two counts of soliciting a former stuntman to murder her. The other count of solicitation was dropped after it was revealed that the jury was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of an acquittal. Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, commenting on this ruling, called Blake a "miserable human being" and the jurors "incredibly stupid." Blake's defense team and members of the jury responded that the prosecution had failed to prove its case. Trial analysts also agreed with the jury's verdict. On the night of his acquittal several fans celebrated at Blake's favorite haunt, Vitello's.(External Link

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Civil case

Bakley's four children filed a civil suit against Blake asserting that he was responsible for their mother's death. On November 18, 2005, the jury found Blake liable for the wrongful death of his wife and ordered him to pay US$30 million. (Since this was a civil suit, the burden of proof was lower.) On February 3, 2006, Blake filed for bankruptcy. Expressing disbelief that Blake was found liable by the jury in the civil trial, M. Gerald Schwartzbach (Blake's attorney in the criminal trial) vowed to appeal the jury verdict.

Civil trial verdict appeal

According to the Associated Press, M. Gerald Schwartzbach filed the appeal brief on February 28, 2007. It was also reported in the AP article that an LAPD Internal Affairs investigation has been opened regarding the lead detective in the original murder case, Detective Ron Ito. The complaint was filed by M. Gerald Schwartzbach and civil trial witness Brian Allan Fiebelkorn. The complaint alleges that the detective failed to investigate leads that persons other than Robert Blake could have been responsible for the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley. Fiebelkorn testified that associates of Christian Brando (originally claimed to have been the father of Bonnie Lee Bakley's daughter) may have been responsible for the murder of Ms. Bakley. The defense theory of who may have been involved in the conspiracy to kill Bonnie Lee Bakley was laid out in a defense motion filed during the criminal trial proceedings.

Verdict upheld

On April 26, 2008, an appeals court upheld the 2007 civil case verdict, but cut Blake's penalty assessment in half. (Blake's attorneys had protested that jurors improperly discussed the Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson verdicts during deliberations of his case, but the appeals judge ruled that such discussions were not improper.)

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