Who is Blake Lively’s late dad Ernie, who Justin Baldoni claims he spoke to posthumously? The director gave the It Ends with Us star her first film role, and shared a close bond with Ryan Reynolds

Mar 17 , 2025

Blake Lively with her late father, Ernie Lively. Photo: @blakelivelybrazil/Instagram

Ernie Brown took on the Lively surname after he married talent manager Elaine Lively, and cast his daughter in his 1998 film Sandman, giving Blake Lively her debut acting role

American actress Blake Lively might be in the middle of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against her It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni after accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her, but she’s trying not to let it affect her personal life.

In an Instagram Story posted on the weekend, the 37-year-old can be seen grinning from ear to ear alongside her husband, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds. The couple appeared to have spent some quality time baking, as evidenced by snaps of horse-themed cookies she shared, captioned, “The family that bakes together … stays sick on buttercream together.”

Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds spent quality time with their kids following a major win in the former’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni. Photo: @blakelively/Instagram

The happy post comes on the heels of a major legal win for Lively, who was recently granted her request to keep “highly personal and intimate information about third parties” privately available to lawyers only by New York Judge Lewis Liman, per The Independent.

Blake Lively arrives for the world premiere of Another Simple Favor on the opening night of the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 7, 2025, in Austin, Texas. Photo: AP

Since the Lively-Baldoni feud made the news, details about the actors’ allegations against each other have continued to drop. One shocking revelation from the actress was that Baldoni claimed he “could speak to the dead” and that he had communicated with her late father, Ernie Lively, reports The Daily Mail.

Lively Sr died in 2021 after suffering cardiac complications, per People. But what else do we know about him?

He was an actor too

Blake Lively’s father, Ernie, was an actor, and her mother, Elaine, worked as a talent manager. Photo: @blakersforever/Instagram

Blake Lively’s father, Ernie Lively (né Brown), was also an actor, which technically makes the Gossip Girl star a nepo baby. Per People, he helped Blake make her acting debut, casting her in his 1998 film Sandman, which he directed. Ernie was best known for acting in Passenger 57, The X-Files, and Mulholland Falls. He also played Lively’s character Bridget’s father in the 2005 teen comedy The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.