Photo: ABC Television / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Robert Blake is one of those actors whose real-life saga eventually eclipsed a genuinely remarkable career, which is a shame because his work deserves more attention. His turn as Perry Smith in In Cold Blood is chillingly internal, all flickers and unease, and Baretta gave television a scruffy, cockatoo-toting cop you actually believed. He came up the hardest way possible, as a child performer who openly hated the experience, and you can feel that weathered, unsentimental quality in everything he did. Knowing the tabloid ending, I find it hard to separate the man from the myth, but the screen presence was undeniably the real thing.
Overview
Robert Blake (1933-2023) was an American actor who began as a child star in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) shorts and the Red Ryder Western films. He went on to acclaimed dramatic roles, notably as killer Perry Smith in the 1967 film In Cold Blood, and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the title role in the 1970s television detective series Baretta. His later years were dominated by the 2001 murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley; he was acquitted in the criminal trial but found liable in a subsequent civil suit.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Robert Blake
- Name (Japanese)
- ロバート・ブレイク
- Reading
- ろばーと・ぶれいく
- Born
- September 18, 1933 – March 9, 2023
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Rooster
- Origin
- Nutley, New Jersey, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- Actor / Television actor / Film actor / Voice actor / Music producer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 1975 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Television actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.