Larry Blake

Larry J. Blake (April 24, 1914 – May 25, 1982) was an American actor from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York.He started his career in vaudeville as an impersonator, working his way to a headliner. After appearing at the Roxy Theatre and the Rainbow Room in New York City, he was offered a screen test with Universal studios. Signing in1936, he first appeared in the serial Secret Agent X-9 (1937). He later appeared in The Road Back (1937), Trouble at Midnight (1938), Air Devils (1938), The Nurse From Brooklyn (1938), State Police (1938) and The Jurys Secret (1938).Serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII, his alcoholism almost got him dishonorably discharged. At the end of the war, he was sent to a California military hospital where a Jesuit priest introduced him to Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1947, Blake started the first Motion Picture AA group. For the next 35 years, he helped many inside and outside the film industry gain sobriety.Over the next 33 years he appeared in numerous films, including Sunset Blvd., High Noon, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Earth vs. The Flying Sauces, Man of a Thousand Faces, Portrait of a Mobster, The Shaggy Dog, Herbie Rides Again, and Time After Time (his last appearance). On television, Blakes credits include Gunsmoke, Heres Lucy, Adam-12, Have Gun, Will Travel, Perry Mason, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, The Jerry Lewis Show, and Night Gallery to name a few. He was a regular on the Pride of the Family series (1953-54) and had a recurring role as the Jailer in Yancy Derringer]] (1958-59).Blake retired in 1979 due to the progression of emphysema. He died on May 25, 1982, and is interred at SanFernando Mission Cemetery. His wife, Teresa, whom he married in 1936, died in 2005.His only child, Michael, worked as a child actor before becoming a film/Tv Makeup artist in 1978. Blake and his son never played father and son in any film or television show, although they did appear together in an episode of Kung Fu (1974) and in the film, One More Train To Rob (1971).

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