Short Biography

Robert Blake (born September 18, 1933(1933-09-18)) is an American Emmy-award-winning actor most famous for starring in the U.S. television series Baretta from 1975 to 1978. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife. 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 (1932-1985). 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.

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). In 1999, Blake met Bonnie Lee Bakley, formerly of Wharton, NJ, who reportedly was 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 that Brando was the father of her child. Bakley wrote letters describing her dubious motives to Blake.[3] 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, 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 killed 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 had 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.

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