Blast From The Past: Robert Blake

Hmmm, why am I doing a blast from the past piece on actor Robert Blake, let me explain.  I wasn't even born when Blake's biggest television hit Baretta hit the air.  I really wasn't familiar with the actor, his past, or even much about the murder charge.  I do certainly remember hearing about Blake being charged with murdering his wife in the early 2000's, but given I wasn't familiar with the actor, I didn't really pay much attention at the time.

I decided to do this post based on a movie, well maybe more specifically about a book.  I never read the 1955  Truman Capote true crime movie In Cold Blood.  I  did however, certainly hear about the book, and the movie in references by others over the years.  I also remember vividly it sitting on the bookshelves in my parents bedroom for the entire time I was growing up.  When I got older, I kept thinking I should read it, but for some reason never did.

When I was cleaning out my parents house after they died, that book was still there.  There were many books on those shelves, some which I kept, but that one, I put in the donation box.   The title stuck with however, I kept thinking I'd finally watch the movie the next time it aired on TCM.  Well, last month it aired again and I finally watched.

I can't say I really enjoyed it, but it was a dark, gripping story.  Even darker, knowing it was based on a true story.  Blake was really good as Perry, one of the ex-cons who terrorized and murders the Clutter family.  There was also something criminally carnal about Blake, that although I'm not especially proud of, had me wanting me to learn more.

After watching the film, I researched more about Blake, his history as a child actors in the 1930's, through his arrest for murder and subsequent acquittal.  I had thought Blake had murdered his wife himself, but the charge was murder with 'special circumstances'.  This was used as Blake was not thought to have murdered his wife Bonnie Lee Blakey, but hired someone to do so.  Although he was eventually acquitted of the crime,  Blakey's three children launched a civil suit which resulted in a guilty verdict. 

 I also had to see if Blake had every done a nude scene, and I did 'sort of' find one.  I say sort of, as it's a distant and dark rear scene, that could have been a body double.  Check out for yourself below. 

In the 1969 Western drama, Blake co-stars alongside Robert Redford and Susan Clark in  Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. Blake plays the title character of Willie in the film.  Although Blake was not an Native American, it was common at the time to cast Italian American's and Blake played Native American's several times over the years.

In 1909, when young Paiute Indian Willie Boy returns to his California reservation to be with Lola, whose father disapproves of him, a killing in self defense takes place, triggering a massive man hunt for Willi.