Joseph Peter Breck was born in Rochester, New York. He 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. He attended the University of Houston, where he studied English and drama.[1]
Family
Breck was the son of bandleader Joe Breck, who was nicknamed "the Prince of Pep", and whose band once included trombone player Jerry Colonna.[2] His parents divorced when Peter was eight. Peter went with Joe, while his younger brother George accompanied their mother, resulting in a decades-long separation.[2] In 1959, an Associated Press photograph showed the brothers reunited after being out of touch for 22 years. The caption explained: "George told newsmen he saw Peter on television and recognized a resemblance. He went to the actor's studio and the relationship was confirmed."[3]
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, Perry Mason, and Gunsmoke (a disturbed cowboy in the 1963 title role in "The Odyssey of Jubal Tanner").
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. That same year, Breck appeared in an episode of the syndicated Highway Patrol,[5] starring Broderick Crawford. He was also cast in an episode of NBC's The Restless Gun, starring John Payne. He appeared in a 1958 episode of Gunsmoke, playing the role of murder suspect, “Fly Hoyt”, a cowboy working on a Texas cattle drive. That same year, Breck played the role of a bad guy in an episode of Wagon Train, "The Story of Tobias Jones", opposite Lou Costello.
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. Unlike in The Big Valley, in which Breck played an easily angered rancher, he is low-key, restrained, and considerate as the lawyer Culhane.
Breck's first starring role in a film was Lad, A Dog (1962).[7] The next year, he played the leading roles in both Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and the science-fiction horror film The Crawling Hand. He also costarred in the cavalry film The Glory Guys. Between 1963 and 1965, Breck made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, in the roles of Clay Eliott in the 1963 episode "The Case of the Bluffing Blast", defendant William Sherwood in the 1964 episode, "The Case of the Antic Angel", and defendant Peter Warren in the 1965 episode, "The Case of the Gambling Lady". During this time, he appeared on episodes of such television series as Mr. Novak, The Outer Limits, Bonanza[citation needed] and The Virginian.
Breck claimed to have been considered for leads on two successful television series produced by Quinn Martin: The Fugitive (1963) and 12 O'Clock High (1964), with Breck commenting, "If you are a leading man in Hollywood, you either draw $250,000 like Steve McQueen or you had better be in a series."[8]
The Big Valley
The Big Valley cast with Breck at far right
From 1965 to 1969, Breck starred on The Big Valley as Nick Barkley, foreman of the Barkley ranch and son to Barbara Stanwyck's character, Victoria Barkley. The second of four children, Nick was hot-headed, short-tempered, and very fast with a gun. 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 siblings, Jarrod (Richard Long), half-brother Heath (Lee Majors), sister Audra (Linda Evans), and Eugene (Charles Briles; written out after season one when he was drafted into the Army), would a difficult situation be rectified. Having been a Barbara Stanwyck admirer since the 1940s, when he was a teenager, Breck developed an on- and off-screen chemistry with her, practicing longer lines and even being a ranch foreman on the set. After the series was cancelled, he stayed close to her until her death.
In the mid-1980s, Breck moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with his wife Diane and their son, Christopher. He was asked by a casting director to teach a weekly class to young actors on film technique. That once-a-week class became a full-time acting school - The Breck Academy - which he operated for 10 years. In 1990, Breck appeared in the Canadian cult film Terminal City Ricochet.
On January 20, 1990, while teaching at the drama school, Breck was notified of Barbara Stanwyck's death. She requested no funeral nor memorial.
His last television performance was on an episode of John Doe in 2002. Prior to his death, most of his film performances have been in undistributed films that are shown only at film festivals.
Personal life
Breck married dancer Diane Bourne in 1960.[note 1] They had a son, Christopher, who died of leukemia at age 30.[1]
Death
In June 2010, Breck's wife Diane announced on his website that he had been suffering from dementia and could no longer sign autographs for fans, although she said that he still read and enjoyed their letters. Despite this diagnosis, she said he was still physically healthy and did not require medication.[10]
Thereafter, Diane Breck reported that her husband was hospitalized on January 10, 2012. On February 6, 2012, Peter Breck died from his illness at the age of 82 in Vancouver, British Columbia.[11][1]
1982
|"General Hospital" | General Hospital
|Masters, head of the WSB
|Episode: Summer of 1982 - Sword Of Malkuth Storyline with Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio), Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer) |}
^"Peter Breck (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved July 8, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
