Robert Blake Biography

American actor Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi was born on September 18th, 1933 in Nutley, New Jersey. He is born to an Italian father James Gubitosi, who was the day setter for a can manufacturer and an Italian American mother Elizabeth, a song and dance act. He has one brother named James Gubitosi and one sister named Jovanni Gubitosi. In 1936, Michael, together with his brother and sister began their 1st performance as The Three Little Hillbillies before they in 1938 followed the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where the three siblings worked as movie extras.

Michael Gubitosi himself started his acting career as Toto in MGM movie "Bridal Suite" (1939) before he continued playing in the movie series "Our Gang" and tried to play numerous child roles in wide range of films and quit when he had to join the military service in 1954 until 1956. This might help him to erase his chilhood blue memories due to his admission that he was grown up in an unhappy, messy family who became a "victim" of his alcoholic father abuse and the things seemed even more difficult when he also got a bad treatment from his friends in school. This bitter experience dragged Blake to be a complicated drug user person. Went home from the army, he returned to California and joined Jeff Corey's acting class.

This was just a starting point for Michael who later on gained success as an Hollywood actor, played qualified dramatic roles in movies and TV. After that, in 1956, Michael Gubitosi changed his name into Bobby Blake that was used as his stage name. In 1964 Blake married with actress Sondra Kerry, who gave birth to his two children, Noah Blake and Delinah Blake. Sadly, in 1983 both of them separated.

Known for his action in "Cold Blood" (1967) in which he acclaimed role of real-life mass murderer Perry Smith, Blake was best known for his Emmy Award winning role in popular TV series "Tony Baretta" (1975-1978) where he played as an undercover police detective specialized in diguising case. Kept on improving his career, he received his another Emmy for his role in the murder drama "Judgement Day: The John List Story" in 1993. To add, he also performed in theatrical movies "Money Train" (1995) and "Lost Highway" (1997).

In November 2000 Blake married the with-a-very-bad past life woman Bonny Lee Bakley, who gave birth his third child Rose Lenore Sophia. A sudden shock came to Blake when his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley was shot and died after their Italian dinner at Vitello's restaurant on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City on May 4, 2001. Had not yet recover from his sadness of his wife murder, Los Angeles police department charged him as his wife murderer with a sentence of life in prison without parole. A long with his body guard Earle Caldwell, who was charged with the same case, on April 18, 2002 Blake was put in jail. On April 27, 2002 Caldwell was released with $1 million bail, while the parole for Blake was rejected. After spending one year in jail, on March 13, 2003 Blake was set free to wait for his trial with $1.5 million parole.