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Peter Breck (born March 13, 1929, Rochester, New York) is an American actor who has played roles on television and in film.

Contents 1 Roles and career 2 The Big Valley 3 After The Big Valley 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Roles and career

After US Navy service on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42) he studied drama at the University of Houston. Breck made his debut in a film produced by Bert Freed that was eventually released under the title The Beatniks. As well as performing in live theatre, Breck had several guest-starring roles on a number of popular series, such as Sea Hunt, several episodes of Wagon Train, Have Gun – Will Travel, and Gunsmoke. In 1956, he and David Janssen appeared in John Bromfield's syndicated series Sheriff of Cochise in the episode "The Turkey Farmers". He appeared in another syndicated series too in the episode "The Deserter" of the American Civil War drama Gray Ghost, with Tod Andrews in the title role.

When Robert Mitchum saw him in George Bernard Shaw's play The Man of Destiny in Washington, D.C. he offered Breck a role as a rival driver in 1958's Thunder Road. Mitchum set Breck up in Los Angeles and as Breck did not have his own car, Mitchum lent him his own Jaguar.^[1] Mitchum introduced Breck to Dick Powell who contracted him to Four Star Productions where he appeared in Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. He also appeared with fellow guest star Diane Brewster in the 1958 episode "The Lady Gambler" of the ABC western series Tombstone Territory, starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. In the 1959–1960 season, he starred as a gunfighter-turned-lawyer lead in the NBC western Black Saddle.

Breck was later a contract star with Warner Brothers Television where he appeared as Doc Holliday on the series Maverick, a part that had been played twice earlier in the series by Gerald Mohr and by Adam West on Lawman (TV series). Breck appeared in several other Warners series of the time such as 77 Sunset Strip, The Roaring Twenties, and The Gallant Men.

The first movie in which Breck was the top-billed star was Lad, A Dog (1962).^[2] The next year he played the leading roles in both Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and the sci-fi horror film The Crawling Hand. During this timeframe he also made appearances on episodes of several more TV shows, such as The Outer Limits, Bonanza, Perry Mason, and The Virginian.

[edit] 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 sons, Nick was the hotheaded, short-tempered brother. Always spoiling for a fight, 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) and Heath (Lee Majors), was a difficult situation rectified.

[edit] After The Big Valley

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 and Wife, S.W.A.T., The Six Million Dollar Man (with Lee Majors), The Incredible Hulk, and 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.

Also in 1990, while teaching at a drama school, he received word that his beloved TV mother/friend, Barbara Stanwyck, had died, but did not attend the funeral, due to other commitments.

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.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.peterbreck.ca/introduction.htm
2. ^ "Lad: A Dog (1962)". Turner Classic Movies. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=80570. Retrieved October 22, 2009. 

[edit] External links

• Peter Breck at the Internet Movie Database
• Peter Breck at Allmovie
• The Official Peter Breck website