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.
LOL!
Now, the other Babs’ have inherited it. Walters and Streisand.
Rin-Tin-Tin
The Rebel
Have Gun Will Travel
The Iron Horse
The Cisco Kid
Death Valley Days
Annie Oakley
Cheyenne
Trackdown
The Rifleman
Branded
Prayers sent for your brother and family.
Believe me I know how you feel. I just put my mother under the care of hospice this afternoon.
Prayers for your brother.
its funny how the older shows are the ones we think of.....can't say anything in the last 15 yrs has done much for me, except I did like "Lost"....
Bless you and your mother.
thank you
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
*********************
I’m apparently older than you. I can recall a few, but not all and I’m sure further comments will add more:
The Cisco Kid
Red Ryder
Roy Rogers
Hopalong Cassidy
Gene Autry
Zorro
The Rebel
Cimmaron
I grew up in the ‘60s, and some of the shows I watched but failed to include in my original list include:
1. Lone Ranger
2. Rin Tin Tin
3. Zorro
4. Rawhide
5. The Rebel
6. Death Valley days
7. High Chaparral
8. Bat Masterson
9. Cimmaron Strip
10. Laredo
11. Alias Smith and Jones
12. Lawman
13. Laramie
14. The Virginian
15. Wyatt earp
My original point was that WOW!, there were a lot of western TV shows back then (when there were only three networks!). Westerns were to TV then what cop shows are to TV now..
He was in a Have Gun, Will Travel episode.
I had SUCH a crush! LOL!
RIP Mr. Breck.
Thanks for all the hours of enjoyment you gave us.
Clint Eastwood will ALWAYS be Rowdy Yates to me.
I thought he was absolutely gorgeous. (I’m a “she”)
The other night I came across a news story of his death while watching the show, weird.
Bonanza with a mother instead of father. Better than 80% of the crap that’s on TV now.
RIP
No question that Linda Evans is THE reason I catch Big Valley reruns on Me-TV when I can. She was pretty close to perfect...now she looks like a cat, due to horrific plastic surgery.
And without the "Cartwright Curse."
Sgt. Preston of the Yukon
The Alaskans (with Roger Moore).
My prayers are with your brother, with you, and with your family.
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