Nationality British Role Actor Name Christopher Blake | Years active 1971–2004 Occupation Actor, screenwriter Parents Charles, Elizabeth | |
Full Name Peter Ronald Gray Born 23 August 1949 ( 1949-08-23 ) London, England, U.K. Died December 11, 2004, London, United Kingdom Education Central School of Speech and Drama Books Searching for a God to love Movies and TV shows That's My Boy, Mixed Blessings, Aces High, Anne of Avonlea, Love for Lydia Similar People Jack Gold, David Wood, Peter Firth, Ray Milland | ||
Christopher Blake – Thoughts (Lyrics) [CC]
Christopher Blake (23 August 1949 – 11 December 2004) was an English actor and screenwriter. He is perhaps best remembered for starring in the British sitcoms Mixed Blessings (1978–80) and That's My Boy (1981–86).
Contents
- Christopher Blake Thoughts Lyrics CC
- Christopher Blake Flavour
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- Illness and death
- Filmography
- References
Christopher Blake - Flavour
Early life
He was born Peter Ronald Gray on 23 August 1949 in Chingford, London, England. His father, Charles (known as Harry), was a plasterer and his mother, Elizabeth, a dressmaker and housewife. They went on to have two more sons. The family emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s but returned in 1966 and he attended the Fitzherbert Secondary Modern School, Brighton, Sussex. He then trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and changed his name to Christopher Blake, because there was another Peter Gray registered with the actors' union, Equity. He chose the surname Blake from the telephone directory.
Career
Blake first came to the attention of television audiences in 1972 when he was cast as Gilbert Blythe in the 1972 BBC adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. He would later reprise the role in 1975 in Anne of Avonlea. Blake later had roles in the LWT serial Love for Lydia (1977), and then a starring role in the ITV sitcom Mixed Blessings (1978–80) for which he also sang the theme tune. Although Blake remained busy as an actor in various stage and television roles, his next truly successful venture was the ITV sitcom That's My Boy (1981–86) in which he played Robert Price, a middle-class doctor who hires a live-in housekeeper (played by Mollie Sugden) who turns out to be his biological mother. After That's My Boy, Blake continued in character parts in episodic television, but never managed to land the more prominent roles that he had enjoyed earlier in his career. In 2000, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure The Mutant Phase which featured the Daleks.
In later years Christopher Blake turned to screenwriting, writing several episodes of Channel 5's short-lived soap Family Affairs. He wrote two episodes ("Dancing in the Dark" and "Endangered Species") of the ITV crime serial A Touch of Frost with his writing partner Tony Charles.
Personal life
He was married twice and had three children from his first marriage; two daughters and a son. A talented all-round cricketer since his youth in Australia, he played the game throughout his life, including for The Lord's Taverners and William Franklyn's team, the Sargentmen, which raised money for the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children. One of his other great passions was supporting Arsenal F.C. and he dropped references to Arsenal into scripts whenever the opportunity arose.
Illness and death
In early 2004 after an aggressive and rare form of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was diagnosed, Blake received treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Surrey. He died on 11 December 2004 in London, England, aged 55. He is buried at the East London Cemetery and Crematorium.