Robert Blake lived a life that felt like three different movies stitched together by a very cynical editor. Most people asking about how old is robert blake the actor are usually looking for a simple number, but with Blake, nothing was ever actually simple. He wasn't just a face on a TV screen; he was a survivor of the old Hollywood studio system, a grit-and-teeth dramatic powerhouse, and eventually, the center of a murder trial that made the O.J. Simpson case look like a preliminary hearing.
He died on March 9, 2023. At the time of his death, Robert Blake was 89 years old.
He passed away in Los Angeles, the city that made him a star and then very nearly put him behind bars for the rest of his natural life. The cause was heart disease, according to his family. But if you look at the timeline of his life, those 89 years were packed with enough trauma and reinvention to exhaust a dozen men.
The Mystery of the Birth Date
If you dig into the archives, you’ll find that Blake was born Michael James Vincenzo Gubitosi on September 18, 1933. That’s the official record. However, Blake himself was always a bit of a wildcard when it came to his own history. In later interviews, he’d claim he wasn't entirely sure if it was September or October.
He was born in Nutley, New Jersey. His childhood? Honestly, it sounds like something out of a Dickens novel, if Dickens had written about Italian-American stage parents. His father was an Italian immigrant, his mother an Italian-American, and they had a song-and-dance act. By the time he was a toddler, Blake was part of the show.
They called them "The Three Little Hillbillies." It wasn't a happy home. Blake was open about the fact that he was physically and sexually abused by his parents. By the time the family moved to Los Angeles in 1938 to chase the movie dream, the kid was already carrying around a lot of ghosts.
From Little Rascal to Emmy Legend
Blake started acting when he was barely five. He’s one of the few actors who managed to bridge the gap between being a child star and a legitimate adult actor. You might recognize him as "Mickey" in the Our Gang (The Little Rascals) shorts. He did about 40 of them. He was the kid with the wide eyes and the surprisingly intense delivery.
Then came the transition. Most child stars flame out by twenty. Blake didn't. He went into the Army—there’s a weird story there where he claimed he was drafted at 16 or 17, which doesn't quite line up with the math, but hey, that was Blake. After his service, he struggled. He was addicted to heroin. He was selling drugs. He was essentially a ghost in Hollywood until he found acting classes and cleaned up.
Then came In Cold Blood in 1967.
Playing Perry Smith, a real-life killer, Blake was terrifyingly good. It changed everything. Suddenly, he wasn't just "that kid from the shorts." He was a lead.
The Baretta Years
If you grew up in the 70s, he was Tony Baretta. Period. The cockatoo, the catchphrases ("Don't do the crime if you can't do the time"), and that gritty, street-level charisma won him an Emmy in 1975. He was 42 years old at the height of his Baretta fame. He was on top of the world, even if he was notoriously difficult to work with on set.
The Trial That Defined His Later Years
The question of how old is robert blake the actor usually leads people to the dark chapter of 2001. On May 4, 2001, Blake’s wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was shot in the head while sitting in their car outside Vitello’s restaurant in Studio City.
Blake was 67 at the time of the murder.
The trial was a circus. The prosecution painted him as a man who hated his wife and wanted her gone to keep their daughter, Rosie. The defense talked about Bakley’s history of "conning" men. It was ugly. In 2005, a jury found him not guilty in the criminal trial. However, like O.J. before him, he didn't escape the civil court. A jury there found him liable for her "wrongful death" and ordered him to pay $30 million.
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He filed for bankruptcy. He lived the rest of his life in a sort of quiet, self-imposed exile, occasionally popping up on YouTube to tell old Hollywood stories to anyone who would listen.
Understanding the Timeline of Robert Blake
To get a real sense of his longevity, look at these milestones:
- 6 years old: Joins Our Gang as Mickey.
- 34 years old: Stars in the masterpiece In Cold Blood.
- 42 years old: Wins an Emmy for Baretta.
- 63 years old: Makes his final film appearance in David Lynch's Lost Highway.
- 67 years old: The murder of Bonny Lee Bakley occurs.
- 71 years old: Acquitted of murder.
- 89 years old: Dies in Los Angeles (March 2023).
His career spanned nearly 60 years of active work. That's almost unheard of in an industry that usually chews people up and spits them out by thirty.
Why the Math Matters
Knowing he was 89 when he died helps contextualize just how much of American history he lived through. He saw the end of the Vaudeville era, the Golden Age of Hollywood, the rise of television, and the total transformation of the legal system through televised trials. He was a relic of a time when actors were expected to be "tough guys" in real life, not just on camera.
If you're looking to dive deeper into his actual performances rather than just the headlines, start with In Cold Blood. It’s black-and-white, it’s haunting, and it shows why people cared about him in the first place. You can also find his old Baretta episodes on various retro streaming platforms. It’s a time capsule of a Los Angeles that doesn't really exist anymore.
For those interested in the legal complexities, the 2005 trial transcripts are still widely analyzed in law schools for how circumstantial evidence and witness credibility (like the stuntmen who claimed Blake tried to hire them) can sway a jury.
The best way to understand Robert Blake isn't just to look at a birth certificate. It’s to look at the work he left behind before the headlines took over. He was a complicated man who lived a very long, very loud life.
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Next Steps for Your Research
- Watch the 1967 film In Cold Blood to see Blake at the absolute peak of his dramatic powers.
- Search for his 2012 interview with Piers Morgan to see a raw, albeit erratic, look at his mindset years after the trial.
- Visit the archives of the Los Angeles Times if you want to read the day-to-day breakdown of the 2004-2005 murder trial.