What is Robert Blake's net worth? A look at 'Baretta' actor's fortune after he became a suspect in wife's murder
The 'Baretta' actor, Robert Blake had emerged as the prime suspect in his wife Bonny Lee Bakley's murder investigation from 2001. On March 16, 2005, after a three-month-long criminal trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, a jury acquitted Blake of his wife's murder. The full narration of Blake's story will be telecasted by the Reelz Network on 'Geraldo Rivera's Murder in the Family'. Now, the Internet wants to know the net worth of Robert Blake.
What is Robert Blake's net worth?
Blake, who was born Mickey Gubitosi in 1933 in New Jersey, made his movie debut at the age of six, in MGM’s 1939 movie 'Bridal Suite'.The studio soon featured him in its 'Our Gang' series of short films. After changing his name to Robert Blake, he starred in the 1960 gangster movie 'The Purple Gang' and numerous other films. In 1967, Blake memorably portrayed Perry Smith, one of two real-life murderers at the center of Truman Capote’s 'In Cold Blood', when the book was adapted for the big screen. As an actor, Blake was best known for his Emmy-winning work as the street-smart plainclothes policeman Tony Baretta in the ABC series 'Baretta'. The show ran from 1975 to 1978, and Blake won an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series at the end of its first season. Blake's net worth is $3 million.
Blake met his second wife Bonny in 1999 in a jazz club. After the birth of daughter Christian Shannon Brando, Bakley told Blake that she was unsure of the child's paternity and that he might be the father of the child. Blake insisted that the child was Christian Brando's (Marlo Bardon's son). Blake insisted on a paternity test which later determined that he, was the father of Bakley's youngest child. After paternity was established, the child's name was legally changed to Rose Lenore Sophia Blake. In November 2000, the couple tied the knot.
On May 4, 2001, Blake took Bakley to dinner at Vitello's Restaurant on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. Afterward, Bakley was murdered by a gunshot wound to the head while sitting in her car, which was parked on a side street around the corner from the restaurant. Blake claimed that he had returned to the restaurant to collect a gun that he had left there and was not present when the shooting occurred. The gun that Blake claimed he had left in the restaurant was later determined not to have fired the shots that killed Bakley.
Blake was arrested for the murder and the prosecution hinged on the confession of two former stunt doubles who claimed the actor had recruited them to kill his wife. During cross-examination, the stuntmen were revealed to be cocaine and methamphetamine users. The jury declared they didn’t believe the stuntmen’s statements, and also concluded that the prosecution had failed to place the murder weapon in Blake’s hands.
Then later in In November 2005, eight months after the criminal trial ended, Blake was found guilty in a civil trial of “intentionally” causing Bonny’s death. In 2005, he lost a civil suit after which he was ordered to pay Bakley's children $30 million (reduced to $15 million) for "intentionally causing" her death. Though he did not testify in the criminal trial, Blake did take the stand during his civil trial to deny the accusations.