Actor Robert Blake was a longtime resident of Studio City when he married Bonny Lee Bakley on the grounds of his home at Dilling and Troost.
Although their house was a brisk walk to Vitello's in Tujunga Village, the couple would almost always drive to go to their favorite restaurant—often two or three times a week—and they would always park on the street rather than valet park in the restaurant's small parking lot.
The crime remains unsolved, and to date, no one has been prosecuted for the shooting.
For a long time, even a decade later, Vitello's remains associated with the incident, but is now in a reboot with a variety of changes.
Check out the photo essay of Blake and his connection to Studio City.
He moved to Hidden Hills in a closed community, and rarely makes public appearances. It was a surprise to see him at the held last September at the CBS Studios lot.
On a personal note, I got to know Blake rather well when he was walking with the Great Peace March across the country, starting in the San Fernando Valley and including a lot of Studio City residents in 1986. The Daily News of Los Angeles had me check in every two weeks and often fly out to join the marchers, and Blake was always one of the first ones I checked in with, or he called me regularly from the road.
When I saw him last year, he remembered, and I asked him if I could talk to him about this particular anniversary as May 4 loomed. "What anniversary?" he asked. "Oh, that, no way. No way, man."
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See video of the Robert Blake arrest and other video montages above.
