Robert Blake

In 2013 on "The Piers Morgan Show" to promote his autobiography, Blake related that when he was playing John Garfield as a boy in "Humoresque," there was a scene he could not get right. Garfield cleared the set and directed Blake himself. After the scene was finished, Garfield told the nine-year-old, "Robert, remember this for the rest of your life. Your life is a rehearsal. Your performance is real.".

More than a year after her death, he was arrested for the murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. He was acquitted on 16th March 2005. Eight months later, however, a jury in a civil suit brought on behalf of her children found Blake liable for the murder and ordered him to pay over $30 million in damages.

Arrested and charged with the murder of his second wife. [April 2002]

Blake's wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, was shot in the head and killed while sitting in her car waiting for her husband outside of a restaurant. [May 2001]

Daughter, Rose Lenore Sophia Blake (with Bonnie Lee Bakley), was born June 2000.

Appears in the film Lost Highway (1997), about a man who murders his wife. It was inspired, according to David Lynch, by the O.J. Simpson case. Blake later became the centre of another high-profile wife-killing case in real life.

He quit his successful TV series Hell Town (1985) when his personal demons became overwhelming. After a self-imposed exile of nearly eight years, during which he struggled to right his life, he successfully returned to films and television work, appearing renewed and more confident in himself and his work.

Learned how to drive a 13-gear 30-ton semi-trailer diesel truck for the comedy-drama film Coast to Coast (1980).

A number of telling performances in films of the next decade, stardom in a popular television series (Baretta (1975), and several ruefully comic appearances as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) made him a popular figure even as his personal difficulties increased. Consumed with anger over his treatment by his family and the studio as a child, he denigrated his early work, suffered bouts of difficulty with drugs, and became known as a difficult, perfectionist person to work with.

Almost had the role of Jim Rockford on The Rockford Files (1974), but Stephen J. Cannell thought that, since Rockford didn't like to fight, the diminutive Blake would have seemed too cowardly in the role.

Passed on Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and lost out on a role in The Godfather (1972) (presumably the role of Michael or Sonny). He also turned down the role of Angel in The Wild Bunch (1969).

He received accolades for his performance as a killer who goes to the gallows in 1967's In Cold Blood (1967), and he won a 1975 Emmy for Baretta: He'll Never See Daylight (1975), but his career had been stalled for years.

But despite some fine work in films like Pork Chop Hill (1959) and Town Without Pity (1961), his career did not take off until his stunning portrayal of killer Perry Smith in In Cold Blood (1967).

Though roles were sporadic as he grew to manhood, he was never long off the screen (except for a period of military service, 1954-56).

American actor who began as a child in Our Gang comedies and reappeared as a powerful adult performer of leading and character roles. Born in New Jersey, the young Mickey Gubitosi won a role in MGM's Our Gang series at the age of 5. As one of the more prominent children in the Gang, he gained attention for his cute good looks and his lovable, if somewhat melancholy, personality. In 1940 he took on the stage name Bobby Blake (though he continued to use the name Mickey Gubitosi in the Our Gang series for another three years) and began playing child roles in a wide range of films. He gained a good deal of fame as the Indian sidekick Little Beaver in the Red Ryder series of Westerns.