Actor Wrestles with Dad’s Dark Legacy

Robert Blake’s son is returning to a place forever linked to one of Hollywood’s most notorious murder cases — but this time, he is hoping to create a very different memory there.

Noah Blake, an actor and director known for appearances in “Teen Witch,” “The Wonder Years” and “Harry and the Hendersons,” is directing and starring in “A Killer Night in Studio City,” an immersive murder mystery staged inside Vitello’s restaurant in Studio City, California.

The location carries an extraordinary personal history for Blake.

On May 4, 2001, his father, “Baretta” star Robert Blake, had dinner at Vitello’s with his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. Later that night, the 44-year-old Bakley was found fatally shot inside Blake’s car, which was parked near the restaurant.

Twenty-five years later, Noah Blake says returning to Vitello’s is his way of reclaiming a place that became associated with one of the darkest periods of his life.

“This is a chance for me to, not rewrite history, but to create a new page,” Blake told Fox News Digital.

“A Killer Night in Studio City” opened Sept. 15 and is scheduled to run through Halloween.

Despite the real-life history surrounding the location, the production has nothing to do with Bakley’s death.

The fictional story takes place in 1958 Hollywood and centers on the mysterious death of rising actress Sophia Vance. Guests move through different areas of the restaurant, gather clues and try to determine which character is responsible.

The production mixes live theater, music, comedy, dinner and audience participation.

For Blake, however, the venue carries meaning far beyond the fictional crime.

He said Vitello’s had been a familiar gathering place for his family long before Bakley’s killing. Afterward, he stayed away from the restaurant for years.

Now, as the father of a 4-year-old son, Blake says he wants his child to associate the restaurant with something positive rather than the tragedy attached to the Blake family name.

“I want him to think about, ‘Oh, Vitello’s, that’s the place where daddy did that fun show,’” Blake said.

He emphasized that he is not trying to erase what happened to Bakley.

“I’m not trying to minimize that tragedy,” Blake said. “But it wasn’t my tragedy, and it was a cross that I’ve had to bear and still will probably for the rest of my life.”

That effort to create new memories has not been welcomed by everyone connected to the case.

Rose Lenore, Bakley’s daughter with Robert Blake, told Fox News Digital she finds the decision to stage a murder mystery at Vitello’s painful and insensitive.

“I think him doing it at Vitello’s is upsetting for me and anyone who loved Bonny,” Lenore said.

Bakley had four children, including Rose, and Lenore said her mother’s relatives continue to live with the loss.

She stressed that she does not wish Noah Blake harm and does not want to dismiss his own emotional experience, but said she felt compelled to speak publicly.

“For Noah to be doing a happy, fun show — I think it’s in poor taste,” she said.

Noah Blake responded by saying his decision was deeply personal.

He described Vitello’s as a place he had loved for much of his life before it came to symbolize a devastating chapter that he had no role in creating.

“Choosing to walk back into that space now and create something uniquely mine — something lighthearted and entertaining that people are enjoying — is part of my own healing journey,” Blake said.

He added that he respects Lenore’s feelings and would prefer to discuss the disagreement privately with her.

The history behind their dispute dates back more than two decades.

Bakley was shot while sitting in Robert Blake’s Dodge Stealth after the couple ate dinner at Vitello’s. Blake told investigators he had returned to the restaurant to retrieve a handgun he had left behind and discovered Bakley wounded when he came back to the car.

Robert Blake was arrested in 2002 and charged with murdering his wife.

The sensational case eventually went before a Los Angeles County jury in 2005. After a lengthy trial, Blake was acquitted of murder.

The criminal verdict did not end the legal fight.

Later that year, a civil jury found Blake liable for Bakley’s death and awarded her children $30 million in damages. The judgment contributed to Blake filing for bankruptcy and was later reduced to $15 million on appeal before the parties reached a confidential settlement.

The distinction remains important: Blake was found not guilty in the criminal case, where prosecutors were required to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but was later held financially liable in the separate civil case, which used a lower burden of proof.

Robert Blake continued to deny killing Bakley until his death in 2023 at age 89.

For Noah, the years surrounding the murder investigation and trials left lasting scars.

He said the intense public scrutiny forced him to question everything he believed about his father.

“Did he do this thing? Was he really capable of this? Was he that far gone? Was my father this monster?” Blake recalled wondering.

He also described suffering what he characterized as a nervous breakdown, including panic attacks and a period in which he struggled to leave his home.

His memories of his father remain complicated.

“There were moments my father could be a very loving, kind, decent, generous human being,” Blake said, while also acknowledging that Robert could at times be selfish, threatening and deeply difficult.

Noah has said he would eventually like to make a documentary examining his father and the Bakley case, including conversations with people who knew Robert and were involved in the events surrounding the killing.

For now, his focus is on something considerably lighter.

Every performance of “A Killer Night in Studio City” gives Blake another night inside the restaurant he avoided for so long — surrounded not by detectives, cameras and memories of a real homicide, but by actors, music and a completely fictional one.

Blake says that distinction is precisely the point.

“I live my life as me,” he said.