Charlie Brown TV voice actor gets nearly 5 years in prison for making criminal threat

SAN DIEGO – A former child actor who was the voice of Charlie Brown in beloved “Peanuts” TV specials is headed to prison, despite a last-ditch effort to withdraw his guilty plea to charges of making criminal threats.

Peter Robbins was sentenced Monday in San Diego to four years and eight months in prison.

The 59-year-old admitted sending threatening letters to a manager at a mobile home park in suburban Oceanside, where he had been living. He also sent letters to members of the media in which he offered to pay money to have San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore killed.

From age 9 to 13, Robbins was the voice of Charlie Brown in a series of 1960s animated classics, including “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”