Second best.
Posted on 02/10/2012 5:45:02 PM PST by John W
Peter Breck, who played a hot-headed son of California ranch owner Barbara Stanwyck on the 1960s TV Western The Big Valley, died Monday in Vancouver after a long illness. He was 82.
His wife announced his death on the website The Big Valley Writing Desk.
Before the 1965-1969 ABC series, the hark-haired, rugged-looking Breck had worked as a regular on two other TV Westerns: Maverick, as Doc Holliday opposite James Garner, and Black Saddle, on which he played a gunman turned lawyer opposite future Gilligan’s Island actor Russell Johnson.
A native of Haverhill, Mass., and the son of a jazz musician, Breck scored a contract at Warner Bros. and appeared in dozens of shows from the mid-1950s to the early 2000s, including The Virginian, Hawaiian Eye, Perry Mason, Lawman, Branded, Gunsmoke, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy and John Doe.
His film work included roles in Thunder Road (1958), I Want to Live! (1958), The Beatniks (1960), Portrait of a Mobster (1961), Lad: A Dog (1962), Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor (1963) and Benji (1974).
On Big Valley, Breck played Nick Barkley, who lost his temper easily and was often spoiling for a fight. Nick was the brother of the characters played by Richard Long, Charles Briles and Linda Evans and the half-brother to Lee Majors. He stayed close with Stanwyck after the show finished production.
In the mid-1980s, Breck moved to Vancouver, worked in theater and opened an acting school.
His wife of 51 years, Diane, wrote on his website that he was suffering from dementia and had been hospitalized since Jan. 10.
Most famous line:
“I killed that fat barkeep!!!!”
Haha! I remember that! I think I’d done that a few times myself playing shootout with my brothers in my tomboy years!
I’m so so sorry to hear about your brother. We don’t know each other but I have a brother whom I’m very close to and we watched stuff like this together too.
Will be praying for your brother and for you.
I’m so sorry to hear about your brother. I will pray for you and your family.
Second best.
Always liked Breck. I’d heard he had been in poor health in recent years. Sure wish his older, half-hour western series, “Black Saddle,” would be syndicated or available on dvd. It didn’t last as long as “Big Valley,” and there are far fewer episodes, however.
I love watching the older shows. Just the whole attitude and mentality they offer. So refreshingly reminiscent of when the country and its culture were something to really cheer and be proud of. Unlike the drippingly pathetic metrosexual era of today.
Ha! I realize about ten minutes after I wrote my post this was coming.
If you watch the show, you’ll notice they used a “soft” lens whenever they filmed Babs. The original Star Trek used it a lot, too.
Thinking back on those days, it’s interesting just how many western shows were on the air. I watched them all.
Let me see how many I can name from memory (in no particular order):
1. Bonanza
2. Wagon Train
3. Gunsmoke
4. The Guns of Will Sonnett
5. The Real McCoys
6. Have Gun, Will Travel
7. Cheyenne
8. The Rifleman
9. Big Valley
10. Maverick
Okay. That list was made in less than a minute.
Now I’ll start remembering 10 or 15 I forgot about.
Also, your brother and your family are in my prayers.
Hmm.. Was that show, ‘The Sons of Will Sonnett’?
11. Rawhide.
12. Death Valley Days.
Good ones!
Freeper crapgame just reminded me also about ‘High Chapparel’, and I also forgot ‘Branded’.
13. Rin Tin Tin.
14. The Virginian.
15. High Chaparral.
Makes you wish you were a kid again.
Sigh.
How about these:
Zane Grey Theater, High Chaparral, The Rebel, Lawman, The Outlaws, Laramie, Colt .45, The Texan, Bat Masterson, Laredo, Shotgun Slade, Cimarron Strip, Wyatt Earp, Sugarfoot, Tales of Wells Fargo, Riverboat, Bronco, The Dakotas, The Tall Man, Johnny Ringo, Alias Smith and Jones, 26 Men, McKenzie’s Raiders, Trackdown...
Bat Masterson
Laredo Wyatt Earp
Yancy Derringer
Boots and Saddles
Laramie
Lawman
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
The Tall Man
Range Rider
Wanted:Dead or Alive
Wells Fargo
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Wild West
Broken Arrow
Bronco Lane
Lone Ranger
Sugarfoot
Cimarron City
Cimarron Strip
High Chaparral
Riverboat
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
Sheriff of Cochise
Restless Gun
Mackenzies Raiders
And when Stanwyck took off her gloves, look out!
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