Italian-American actor Robert Blake is best known for his roles in the 1970s television
series Baretta and the 1967 film Cold Blood.
His earliest role as a child actor was playing the lead in the final years of MGM's Our Gang
short film series between 1939 and 1944.
He likewise appeared in 22 installments of the Red Ryder films before serving in the
US Army.
After his time serving in the military, Blake made a return back to show business, acting
in numerous TV shows and films.
Blake continued to act until 1997, when he appeared in his final career role in David
Lynch's Lost Highway.
Seeing as how he had been active in Hollywood since the late-1930s, Blake is often considered
to be an actor who enjoyed one of the longest careers in Hollywood's history.
While professionally speaking, Blake's life has been pretty successful, Blake's personal
life has been marred by controversy and scandal.
In 1961, Blake married his first wife, Sondra Kerr.
He and Kerr ended up having two children together, Noah and Delinah Blake.
Citing irreconcilable differences, the couple divorced in 1983.
While that marriage wasn't particularly tumultuous, as far as we know, Blake's next one would
be intensely problematic right from the start – and how it would end was nothing short
of tragic.
In 2005, Blake was put on trial for the 2001 murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley, whom he had met
in 1999 and married in 2000.
While Blake was ultimately acquitted of those charges, many still consider him to be Bakley's
killer.
Join Facts Verse as we try to get to the bottom of whether or not Robert Blake really killed
his second wife.
If you like murder mysteries and true-crime shows, this video should be right up your
alley.
But before we get to the more grisly details, let's take a closer look at Blake's backstory
and rise to fame.
We already covered a bit of this, but to truly understand this man's story, we should probably
try to get acquainted with who he is and where he came from.
Robert Blake's Early Life And Acting Career
Born Michael James Gubitosi on September 18, 1933, in Nutley, New Jersey, to parents Giacomo
Gubitosi and Elizabeth Calone, Blake got his start in show business performing in a song-and-dance
act with his parents and siblings that was billed as 'The Three Little Hillbillies'.
In 1938, Blake and his family relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he and his
siblings started working as movie extras.
Blake reportedly had a deeply unhappy childhood.
He was apparently abused by his father, who was a raging alcoholic.
After entering the public school at the age of 10, Blake was heavily bullied and frequently
got into fights with other students.
Eventually, he would get himself expelled because of his tendencies toward violence.
Later in life, Blake would claim that he was sexually and physically abused by both of
his parents who would punish him by forcing him to eat off the floor and by locking him
in a closet for hours on end.
In 1939, Blake, who was then going by the name Mickey Gubitosi, began his acting career,
first appearing in the MGM film Bridal Suite.
That same year, he replaced Eugene "Porky" Lee, as the lead in MGM's Our Gang short films.
He would appear in 40 of these shorts between 1939 and 1944.
It was in 1942 that he began going by the name Bobby Blake.
After Our Gang was discontinued in 1944, Blake was given the role of a Native American boy
named 'Little Beaver' in the Red Ryder series of westerns.
Within just three years, he would appear in 23 of these films.
When he was 14, Blake ran away from home.
The next few years of his life would be extremely difficult as he lived on the streets as a
teenage vagrant.
In 1947, at 17, Blake returned back to Hollywood and played Mahmoud in the adventure film The
Black Rose.
In 1950, Blake was drafted into the Army.
After leaving the military at the age of 21, Blake found that he had little if any job
prospects and subsequently fell into a deep depression.
To cope with his trouble, he turned to drugs and alcohol to soothe his mind, but as we
all know, these vices are never a cure for anything.
During a two-year period in which Blake was addicted to heroin and cocaine, he sold drugs
to support his habit.
After managing to get clean, Blake started taking acting classes in hopes of making something
out of his life.
With hard work and dedication, he eventually became a polished Hollywood actor who would
go on to land a number of noteworthy roles in film and on television.
He was first billed as Robert Blake for the first time in 1956.
For the next decade, he would appear in several notable films and television shows including
ABC's Straightaway, NBC's Laramie, 1960s The Purple Gang, and 1965s The Greatest Story
Ever Told.
In 1967 Blake landed his breakout role in the film Cold Blood.
He went on to score roles in films such as 1969s Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, 1973s
Electra Glide in Blue, and 1981s made-for-TV feature of Mice and Men.
His most memorable role came in 1975 when he was given the part of Tony Baretta in the
Emmy-Award-winning television series Baretta.
Blake would stick with that role until the show's cancellation in 1978.
After that, there were several years where Blake was given roles in shows that never
got greenlit.
From the 1980s to the mid-90s, Blake would continue to act mostly on television.
During these years he was featured in offerings such as the 1983 miniseries Blood Feud and
1993s Judgment Day.
In 1995, he starred in the theatrical film Money Train, and two years later, he would
make his final acting appearance in David Lynch's 1997 neo-noir film Lost Highway.
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Stay tuned to learn all about Blake's second wife's murder and the trial that ensued.
Blake's Tumultuous Second Marriage to Bonnie Lee Bakley
In 1999, two years after retiring from acting, Blake met Bonnie Lee Bakley.
She had previously been married nine times and had a reputation for exploiting older
men – celebrities in particular – for money.
While dating Blake, Bakley was also seeing Christian Brando, Marlon Brando's son.
When she eventually got pregnant, she told both suitors that the baby was theirs.
At first, Bakley named the child Christian Shannon Brando and insisted that Brando was
the baby's father.
Upon Blake's insistence, Bakley took a paternity test to determine who the father of the child
actually was.
After the DNA test results came back showing that Blake was the father, he and Bakley got
married on November 19, 2000.
After tying the knot, the baby girl was renamed Rosie.
Bonnie Lee Bakley's Murder
On May 4, 2001, Blake took his wife out for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Vitalo's
in Studio City, California.
After leaving the restaurant, the couple made their way back to their vehicle, which was
parked on a side street around the corner behind a dumpster adjacent to a construction
site.
Blake claims that he then left Bonnie in the car to go retrieve a pistol that he had left
in the restaurant.
When he came back, he insists that he found Bakley fatally shot in the head.
Interestingly, the pistol that Blake claimed to have left in Vitalo's was later found,
and the police determined that it was not the weapon used in the murder.
While his story first seemed to check out, after a retired Hollywood stuntman named Ronald
'Duffy' Hambleton agreed to testify against him, police arrested Blake on April 18, 2002,
and charged him with Bakley's murder.
Earle Caldwell, Blake's longtime bodyguard, was also arrested and was slapped with conspiracy
charges in connection to Bakley's murder.
Hambleton claimed that Blake had attempted to hire him to kill Bakley.
An additional retired stuntman and friend of Hambleton, Gary McLarty, also came forward
to tell a very similar story.
On April 22, Blake was charged with one count of 'murder with special circumstances' – a
charge that could potentially lead to a death penalty sentence.
Additionally, he was charged with two counts of soliciting murder and one count of conspiracy
to commit a murder.
Not surprisingly, Blake pleads not guilty.
After spending almost a year in jail, Blake was let out on a $1.5 million bond on March
13, 2003.
During this time he was placed on house arrest while he awaited trial.
In a pre-trial hearing on October 31, the judge dismissed the conspiracy charges against
Blake and his bodyguard.
A juror later told 48 Hours that the prosecution had no forensic evidence to implicate Blake
in the murder, nor did they have anything that tied him to the murder weapon.
Blake's Trial And Acquittal
Blake's murder trial commenced on December 20, 2004.
The prosecution argued that Blake had intentionally murdered Bakley to escape from a marriage
that grew loveless and all-consuming.
The defense contended that Blake was innocent and that he was a victim of very unfortunate
circumstances.
They further asserted that the evidence brought against him had been fabricated.
Hambleton and McLarty both testified that they had been asked by Blake to murder his
wife.
The defense then brought up Hambleton's criminal history and McLarty's mental health issues.
It was also pointed out that gunshot residue had not been found on Blake's hands.
On March 16, 2005, Robert Blake was found not guilty of murder and two counts of solicitation
to commit murder.
The remaining count of solicitation to commit murder was dropped.
After the verdict, Bakley's three children chose to file a civil suit against Blake,
claiming that he was responsible for her death.
During that trial, Earle Caldwell's ex-girlfriend testified that she believed that Blake and
Caldwell had worked together to commit the crime.
On November 18, 2005, a jury determined Blake to be liable for the 'wrongful death' of Bakley.
Blake was then ordered to pay her children $30 million.
Several months later, on February 3, 2006, Blake was forced to file for bankruptcy, After
appealing the court's decision, the charges were upheld, but Blake's penalty was cut down
to $15 million.
Since those two trials, Blake has kept a pretty low profile.
From 2017 to 2019, he was married to a woman named Pamela Hudak.
He's been interviewed by 20/20 and CNN's Piers Morgan and continues to insist upon his innocence.
But what do you think?
Do you believe that Robert Blake murdered his second wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, or do
you think there is too little evidence to arrive at that conclusion?
Let us know in the comments.
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