The Only Major Actors Still Alive From The Big Valley

Television Drama Shows

Big screen Westerns might've been falling out of favor at the U.S. box office in 1965 (thus paving the way for Spaghetti Westerns to become a surprise sensation when Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy rode into movie theaters throughout the course of 1967), but television Westerns were still swaggering their way to strong ratings thanks to "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke," and the hybrid Western/spy/sci-fi series "The Wild Wild West." And with "Rawhide" finally drawing to a close that year (thereby allowing its star Clint Eastwood to become a modern Western star), there was suddenly room for a new, sudsy, ranch-bound saga about scheming landowners and warring heirs.

"The Big Valley" whooped it up for a solid four-season run, running out of steam in 1969 at around the same moment the television Westerns began going the way of classical big screen oaters. Until then, viewers were hooked on the doings at the Barkley Ranch, a wide spread of land bequeathed to Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck) by her late husband Thomas Barkley. Victoria is a fiercely proud woman, and as formidable a matriarch as television has ever had (which is what you get when you throw red meat to a titan like Stanwyck for 103 episodes). She watched over three capable sons in Jarrod (Richard Long), Nick (Peter Breck), and Heath (Thomas' illegitimate scion played by Lee Majors), and a vivacious daughter in Audra (Linda Evans). It was a 19th century-set precursor of sorts to nighttime soaps like "Dallas" and "Dynasty," and it launched the careers of two actors who would become major TV stars in the '70s.

Given that the series concluded during the first year of the Nixon administration, you won't be surprised to learn that many of the show's actors have passed on. Stanwyck, Breck and Long have left us, as have recurring performers Napoleon Whiting, Douglas Kennedy and Charles Briles. Who's left? If you've been keeping up with popular culture over the last five years, you should know this answer in a heartbeat.

Lee Majors (Heath Barkley)

Lee Majors was in his mid-20s when he landed his first major role in television or film as the illegitimate half-brother Heath Barkley. The character had to brawl his way into the family, but was ultimately accepted and loved as a son by Victoria.

Majors was a sturdy, athletic type, but was a touch too stolid to be a major movie star. He found his ideal role in 1973 as Colonel Steve Austin aka "The Six Million Dollar Man." The man who had kids going "Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh" every time they jumped in the air was perfect casting as a cocksure military man on the popular ABC series, a vibe he effortlessly carried over to "The Fall Guy" in 1981 as stuntman Colt Seavers. Majors was a heartthrob to be sure, but he didn't have a natural charisma with his female leads the way his big-screen contemporaries like Burt Reynolds and Robert Redford did. So, once "The Fall Guy" ended in 1986, he was largely relegated to supporting parts (like Colonel Seymour Kooze in the Howard Stern-produced "Baywatch" parody "Son of the Beach") or curtain calls in the "Six Million Dollar Man" TV movies. Most recently, he popped up at the end of David Leitch's "The Fall Guy" adaptation as a cop.

Linda Evans (Audrey Barkley)

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, but raised in Los Angeles, Linda Evans was on a rocketship to celebrity beginning with her days at the fame-and-fortune springboard that is Hollywood High School. Evans had the looks and the vivacity to be a major movie star, but she got her break early on in television (opposite future "Dynasty" co-star John Forsythe in "Bachelor Father"), and, after a string of guest appearances on hit shows like "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" and "The Untouchables," broke through to the small screen big time in "The Big Valley." Then in her early 20s, Evans was viewed more as a sex symbol than a serious actor — which was bunk because she was holding her own weekly in scenes with the legendary Stanwyck. She sought out film stardom in the 1970s, but the parts were rarely worthy of her. Nowadays, her most memorable movie performance is likely in the lousy Joe Don Baker cop thriller "Mitchell" (which has been forever, gloriously soiled by "Mystery Science Theater 3000").

Evans' next television triumph arrived in 1981 with "Dynasty," where she torched the screen as the fiery Krystle Carrington. Again, she was terrific here, but all anyone seems to remember about her time on the long-running series is her epic, on-screen catfights with co-star Joan Collins. When the series ended in 1989, she gradually drew back from acting altogether. Aside from a smattering of appearances in TV movies and the "Dynasty: The Reunion" miniseries, she is basically retired. At the age of 81, she's more than earned her leisure time.