The kid from *Our Gang* grew up to play a real murderer on screen, then got accused of being one in real life.
At a glance
- Known for
- Emmy-winning lead of *Baretta*, Perry Smith in *In Cold Blood*
- Before fame
- Appeared in 40 *Our Gang* shorts starting at age six
- Off-screen
- Acquitted of murdering his second wife, found liable in civil court
Rise to Fame
Forty Our Gang shorts by age eleven, and behind the camera, parents who reportedly locked him in closets and forced him to eat off the floor. He ran away at 14, got drafted, and spent two years on heroin and cocaine after discharge. Jeff Corey's acting class was the way back.
The role that mattered was Perry Smith in In Cold Blood (1967), cast partly because he physically resembled the real killer. Baretta won him an Emmy in 1975, but playing a convicted murderer on screen is what made people forget the child actor.
In the Spotlight
On May 4, 2001, his second wife Bonny Lee Bakley was shot dead in his car parked around the corner from Vitello's restaurant in Studio City. He claimed he'd gone back inside to retrieve a gun he'd left behind. Two stuntmen testified he'd tried to hire them to kill her. The jury voted 11-1 to acquit in March 2005.
The civil trial was less forgiving. A wrongful death jury hit him with a $30 million judgment, later reduced to $15 million on appeal. He filed for bankruptcy listing assets under $500,000 against liabilities that included $3 million in unpaid legal fees. The case mirrors O.J. Simpson's: celebrity defendant, murdered wife, criminal acquittal, civil liability. Simpson had a legacy to tarnish. By the time Blake's verdict came in, he didn't.
Side Notes
Eighty-two appearances on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show made him a fixture, which tracks for a guy whose volatility was half the entertainment.
His last film role was the Mystery Man in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997). He shaved his eyebrows, applied white kabuki makeup, and never blinked during the party scene with Bill Pullman. It's the kind of role that only works if the actor is genuinely unsettling, and nobody had to coach him on that part.
Final Chapter
The Academy excluded him from the 95th Oscars In Memoriam montage. The Television Academy left him out of its Emmy tribute too, though it listed him on its website. TCM was among the few industry bodies to include him in a memorial segment. At the ceremony, host Jimmy Kimmel joked about voting on whether to include him.