1. Joseph Peter Breck was an American character actor.
24 Facts About Peter Breck
1. 2.
Peter Breck grew up living with his grandparents in Haverhill, Massachusetts, because they felt they could provide a more stable home environment than his father, who often traveled as a jazz musician.
3.
Peter Breck attended the University of Houston, where he studied English and drama.
4.
Peter Breck was the son of bandleader Joe Peter Breck, who was nicknamed "the Prince of Pep", and whose band once included trombone player Jerry Colonna.
5.
Peter Breck went with Joe, while his younger brother George accompanied their mother, resulting in a decades-long separation.
6.
Peter Breck went to the actor's studio and the relationship was confirmed.
7.
Peter Breck then worked as a ranch hand while studying drama at the University of Houston, and went on to make his on-screen debut in a 1958 film that was eventually released under the title The Beatniks.
8.
Peter Breck 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.
9.
That same year, Peter Breck appeared in an episode of the syndicated Highway Patrol, starring Broderick Crawford.
10.
Peter Breck was cast in an episode of NBC's The Restless Gun, starring John Payne.
11.
Peter Breck appeared in a 1958 episode of Gunsmoke, playing the role of murder suspect, "Fly Hoyt", a cowboy working on a Texas cattle drive.
12.
That same year, Peter Breck played the role of a bad guy in an episode of Wagon Train, "The Story of Tobias Jones", opposite Lou Costello.
13.
From January 1959 to May 1960, Breck starred as Clay Culhane, the gunfighter-turned-lawyer in the ABC Western Black Saddle, with secondary roles for Russell Johnson, Anna-Lisa, J Pat O'Malley, and Walter Burke.
14.
Unlike in The Big Valley, in which Peter Breck played an easily angered rancher, he is low-key, restrained, and considerate as the lawyer Culhane.
15.
Peter Breck's first starring role in a film was Lad, A Dog.
16.
Peter Breck costarred in the cavalry film The Glory Guys.
17.
From 1965 to 1969, Peter Breck starred on The Big Valley as Nick Barkley, foreman of the Barkley ranch and son to Barbara Stanwyck's character, Victoria Barkley.
18.
Always spoiling for a fight and frequently wearing leather gloves, Peter 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.
19.
Peter Breck was asked by a casting director to teach a weekly class to young actors on film technique.
20.
In 1990, Peter Breck appeared in the Canadian cult film Terminal City Ricochet.
21.
On January 20,1990, while teaching at the drama school, Peter Breck was notified of Barbara Stanwyck's death.
22.
Peter Breck provided the voice of Farmer Brown in "Critters", a 1998 episode of The New Batman Adventures.
23.
Thereafter, Diane Peter Breck reported that her husband was hospitalized on January 10,2012.
24.
On February 6,2012, Peter Breck died from his illness at the age of 82 in Vancouver, British Columbia.