Per Biography, Blake was born in 1933 as Michael Gubitosi to vaudeville performers. In an interview with “20/20,” the New Jersey native explains that his mother, Elizabeth, had an affair with her brother-in-law, resulting in her pregnancy with Blake (via TooFab). The Daily Mail reports that his mother attempted to abort him twice to no avail; he survived. Elizabeth’s husband, James, begrudgingly went on to raise Blake. Blake, however, has nothing good to say about his father. He told ABC News that “I was his punching bag.” He added, “I wish I could talk nicely about him. It would be like me trying to talk nicely about the cops that put me in that cement box [in jail] for a year. To this day I hate ’em.”

Biography writes that Blake began performing alongside his parents when he was only a child. According to Turner Classic Movies, his family moved to Los Angeles and began taking a young Blake to auditions. By the age of 5, CNN explains, he nabbed a role in the “Our Gang/Little Rascals” series of film shorts. Per another article from ABC News, Blake played the character Mikey from the 1930s until the 1940s. Eventually, he changed his name to Bobby Blake. Although the money he earned from acting provided for his family, Blake was still severely physically abused by his parents (per People).

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