The man at the center of Five Wives is octogenarian Tom Blake; Tommy to friends, "Blakey" to his family. Still handsome, a bit of a dandy, Blakey retains a roguish charm even as old age begins to take its toll. Blakey's lost a couple inches over the years, his hearing's going, and he's blind in one eye. Still, he works out for thirty minutes every morning, eats a hearty breakfast, and puts in a day's work before heading out to the Houston Country Club for eighteen holes. And he's still driving himself everywhere he goes, though fifth wife Muffet won't ride with him anymore.

Blakey is a self-made millionaire, and beyond his eccentric charm is an iron will and a singular determination. Born the scion of a wealthy Houston family on July 4, 1910, he was forced by the ravages of the Great Depression to work his way through college at Rice University, and law school at the University of Virginia, strumming a banjo in a gin joint. As a young attomey, Tommy won a series of high profile cases in Houston, including Downey v. Humble Oil, still taught in law schools today. He earned a reputation as a young hotshot, and he managed to keep his career from being derailed during a long stint in the service in World War II, from which he returned a so-called death case. After a year spent recuperating in Coral Gables, Florida, Blakey continued his law career, working cases in Houston and in Washington, DC. Somewhere in there, his first marriage to Harriette came and went, a casualty to ambition and disinterest.

The post-war years heralded the arrival of Blakey's Hollywood playboy era. Following a brief marriage to second wife, Sharon, and the birth of daughter Michelle, Blakey spent a good deal of time with best friend Gary Cooper ("Coop" to Blakey) and pals Clark Gable, Howard Hughes, and Hope & Crosby. Meanwhile, in Texas, he joined the ranks of the great oil barons, and he became the third husband of his third wife, East Coast socialite Betty, a Christian Scientist. Together, they had two boys, Tom Brooke, and Douglas. Soon enough, however, their interests diverged, and they parted amicably. A few years later, longtime secretary Louise Turner hired a pretty young University of Houston student named Sandra Tessman as a governess for Mr. Blake's kids, and thereby found him his fourth wife, as well.

Sandy gave Blakey his fourth and final child, Tessa Ellen. While her father was busy showing his young bride the world, Tessa was being reared by the Mexican housekeeper, Chelo. Much to Blakey's chagrin, his young daughter's first language wasn't her native English, but Chelo's native Spanish. For a man who asks the maid to make his eggs "escramblada," finding his tiny pride and joy requesting "frijoles y huevos" was somewhat disturbing. Sandy and Blakey divorced when Tessa was still a toddler, and he met his fifth bride-to-be, Muffet, at Tessa's fifth birthday party.

While Blakey and Muffet dated throughout the late seventies, he turned his attentions from the oil business to more secure investments. By the time they married in 1984, he had diversified his holdings considerably, and amassed an even greater fortune in the process. Today, his investment income supports the lifestyles to which he and Muffet have become accustomed; while she enjoys gardening and raising a motley band of five dogs, Blakey takes time out to travel with his buddies to famous golf courses the world over.

And in the twilight of his life, his youngest daughter returns home to make a film about her dad, hoping they get to know each other a little better in the process. While eyebrows raise across the extended clan, Blakey is thrilled and proud to be a part of his young daughter's budding career. Still, he prefers to imagine Five Wives as a study of the public life of a great man -- himself-- rather than of the personal. After the film's 1998 festival premiere at SXSW in Austin, Blakey expressed great pride in his daughter's achievement but said "I don't imagine anyone in the family will be acting in films again any time soon."