Joseph Peter Breck

(March 13, 1929 – February 6, 2012)

The rugged, dark-haired Breck played the gambler and gunfighter Doc Holliday on the ABC/Warner Bros. television series Maverick but is best known for his role as Victoria Barkley's (Barbara Stanwyck) hot-tempered, middle son Nick in the popular 1960s ABC/Four Star Western, The Big Valley. Breck was also the leading man in an earlier ABC/Four Star Western television series entitled Black Saddle.

After post-World War II United States Navy service in the 1940s on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42), Breck played professional basketball for the Rochester Royals during the 1948-49 season. Breck's first starring role in a film was Lad, A Dog (1962). In The Big Valley, he was ramrod of the Barkley ranch and son to Barbara Stanwyck's character, Victoria Barkley. The second of four children, Nick was hotheaded, 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.

During the series he rode a horse named -Coco-.

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