Peter Robbins (born Louis Nanasi; August 10, 1956 – January 2022) was an American child actor. Robbins gained national fame in the 1960s as being the first actor to voice Charlie Brown in the Peanuts animated specials.
Legal problems
On January 20, 2013, Robbins was arrested by San Diego County Sheriff’s Department deputies at Homeland Security’s Port of Entry in San Ysidro, California, while re-entering the United States, and charged with “four felony counts of making a threat to cause death or great bodily injury and one felony count of stalking.” The four counts involve four victims, including a San Diego Police sergeant, whom Robbins reportedly threatened with bodily harm on January 13, 2013. He was held on $550,000 bond. On May 8, 2013, he was sentenced to a year in jail for threatening his former girlfriend and stalking her plastic surgeon, but he was allowed to log time in treatment instead. After release, he was sent to a residential drug treatment center.
In 2015, Robbins was arrested for multiple probation violations, including drinking alcohol and failing to complete mandatory domestic violence classes. On June 5, 2015, he was ordered to undergo a mental health exam after an outburst during a court proceeding in San Diego.
On December 7, 2015, Robbins was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison as part of a plea agreement for sending threatening letters to a manager and his wife of the mobile home park in which he lived in Oceanside, California. Robbins has stated at previous hearings that he suffered from bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. Robbins was incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California, and was transferred to a psychiatric hospital because of his mental state. He was released on parole in 2019 after serving 80 percent of his sentence, on the conditions that he did not drink alcohol or take any illegal drugs.
Personal life
Robbins had a lifelong battle with mental illness. Despite his personal struggles, he remained attached to Charlie Brown and even had a tattoo of Charlie Brown and Snoopy on his arm.
Death
On January 25, 2022, it was announced by Robbins’ family that he died by suicide during the previous week.