Peter Breck
12 years 9 months ago - 5 years 7 months ago #1
by riada
Joseph Peter Breck (March 13, 1929 – February 6, 2012) was an American character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film. The rugged, dark-haired Breck gained fame as Doc Holiday on the series Maverick (TV series), but is best known for his role as Victoria Barkley's (Barbara Stanwyck) hot-tempered, middle son Nick in the popular 1960s Western, The Big Valley.
From 1965 to 1969, Breck starred in the ABC Western series The Big Valley, where he played Nick Barkley, ramrod of the Barkley ranch and son to Barbara Stanwyck's character Victoria Barkley. The second of four children, Nick was the hotheaded, short-tempered brother. Always spoiling for a fight and frequently wearing leather gloves, Breck's character took the slightest offense to the Barkley name personally and quickly made his displeasure known, as often with his fists as with his vociferous shouts. Often this proved to be a mistake and only through the calming influence of his mother and cooler-headed brothers, Jarrod (Richard Long), Eugene (Charles Briles), and half-brother Heath (Lee Majors), would a difficult situation be rectified. Breck, having been a Barbara Stanwyck fan since the 1940s, as a teenager, also developed a on- and off-screen chemistry with her, practicing longer lines and even being a ranch foreman on the set. After the show was canceled, he stayed close to her until her death.
Most of his roles in the 1970s and 1980s were more TV guest-starring performances, on series such as Alias Smith and Jones, Mission: Impossible, McMillan & Wife, S.W.A.T., The Six Million Dollar Man (with Lee Majors), The Incredible Hulk, and The Dukes of Hazzard, as well as roles as himself on Fantasy Island, and The Fall Guy which also starred former television "brother" Lee Majors. In the mid-1980s, Breck moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with his wife Diane and their son Christoper. He was asked by a casting director to teach one class a week to young actors on film technique. That one-a-week class became a full time acting school - The Breck Academy - which he ran for ten years. In 1990, Breck appeared in the Canadian cult film Terminal City Ricochet.
Before then, on January 20, 1990, while teaching at a drama school, he received word that his beloved TV mother/friend, Barbara Stanwyck, had died. Barbara Stanwyck requested no funeral nor memorial.
In the 1993 movie "The Unnamable II Peter Breck played "Sheriff Hatch".
In 1996, he appeared in an episode of the new version of The Outer Limits.
His most recent TV performance was on an episode of John Doe in 2002. In recent years, most of his film performances have been in undistributed films that are shown only at film festivals.
In June 2010, Breck's wife Diane announced on his website that the actor has been suffering from dementia and can no longer sign autographs for fans, although he still reads and enjoys their letters. Despite this diagnosis, she said he was still physically healthy and didn't require medication. He had been hospitalized since January 10, 2012, according to his wife Diane.. On February 6, 2012, Peter Breck died from his illness at the age of 82
Nor but in sleep findeth a cure for care.
Incertainty that once gave scope to dream
Of laughing enterprise and glory untold,
Is now a blackness that no stars redeem.
Peter Breck was created by riada
Joseph Peter Breck (March 13, 1929 – February 6, 2012) was an American character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film. The rugged, dark-haired Breck gained fame as Doc Holiday on the series Maverick (TV series), but is best known for his role as Victoria Barkley's (Barbara Stanwyck) hot-tempered, middle son Nick in the popular 1960s Western, The Big Valley.
From 1965 to 1969, Breck starred in the ABC Western series The Big Valley, where he played Nick Barkley, ramrod of the Barkley ranch and son to Barbara Stanwyck's character Victoria Barkley. The second of four children, Nick was the hotheaded, short-tempered brother. Always spoiling for a fight and frequently wearing leather gloves, Breck's character took the slightest offense to the Barkley name personally and quickly made his displeasure known, as often with his fists as with his vociferous shouts. Often this proved to be a mistake and only through the calming influence of his mother and cooler-headed brothers, Jarrod (Richard Long), Eugene (Charles Briles), and half-brother Heath (Lee Majors), would a difficult situation be rectified. Breck, having been a Barbara Stanwyck fan since the 1940s, as a teenager, also developed a on- and off-screen chemistry with her, practicing longer lines and even being a ranch foreman on the set. After the show was canceled, he stayed close to her until her death.
Most of his roles in the 1970s and 1980s were more TV guest-starring performances, on series such as Alias Smith and Jones, Mission: Impossible, McMillan & Wife, S.W.A.T., The Six Million Dollar Man (with Lee Majors), The Incredible Hulk, and The Dukes of Hazzard, as well as roles as himself on Fantasy Island, and The Fall Guy which also starred former television "brother" Lee Majors. In the mid-1980s, Breck moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with his wife Diane and their son Christoper. He was asked by a casting director to teach one class a week to young actors on film technique. That one-a-week class became a full time acting school - The Breck Academy - which he ran for ten years. In 1990, Breck appeared in the Canadian cult film Terminal City Ricochet.
Before then, on January 20, 1990, while teaching at a drama school, he received word that his beloved TV mother/friend, Barbara Stanwyck, had died. Barbara Stanwyck requested no funeral nor memorial.
In the 1993 movie "The Unnamable II Peter Breck played "Sheriff Hatch".
In 1996, he appeared in an episode of the new version of The Outer Limits.
His most recent TV performance was on an episode of John Doe in 2002. In recent years, most of his film performances have been in undistributed films that are shown only at film festivals.
In June 2010, Breck's wife Diane announced on his website that the actor has been suffering from dementia and can no longer sign autographs for fans, although he still reads and enjoys their letters. Despite this diagnosis, she said he was still physically healthy and didn't require medication. He had been hospitalized since January 10, 2012, according to his wife Diane.. On February 6, 2012, Peter Breck died from his illness at the age of 82
Nor but in sleep findeth a cure for care.
Incertainty that once gave scope to dream
Of laughing enterprise and glory untold,
Is now a blackness that no stars redeem.
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