Quotes

I love doing theatre--any kind of theatre--anywhere. Some theatre was carnival or small town circus. I have never not worked. I never went hungry. As long as there were restaurants available, I would eat. Of course, I worked in those restaurants. I wouldn't want to do it again but if it has to be done, you do it!

[on one scene in The Big Valley (1965) with Martin Landau] I was dragged. Martin Landau was shooting over a rock and as I rode up, an explosion went off, I was over my mark, and Boom! The horse went on the wildest 11 seconds I ever had. At one point I looked up and got it right in the bottom of my chin.

[n a scene in The Big Valley (1965) where he and Heath Barkley (Lee Majors_ encounter a rabid beast ready to pounce on livestock] It was a timber wolf. They threw him off a rock and on to me and doubled the close-up with a German shepherd. We would rehearse it and the gaffers would get up there with him and throw him at me. The paws were going every which way.

I do miss the old Hollywood. I'm not too happy with what's there now. I did Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004)--they gave me the role of the head of the studio--and it was just a rush job. Everything's too fast now and you can't go bang-bang-bang and get a performance. They don't make good movies anymore.

[on his chemistry with Barbara Stanwyck, who played Victoria Barkley in The Big Valley (1965)] I'd get chills, she would look at me with those eyes and our characters had a bond. Barbara was a tiger.

[on Barbara Stanwyck] Barbara Stanwyck was certainly an advocate of this [western] lifestyle. You will recall, as I do, that she did Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) and many more westerns in her earlier career. She loved horses. She knew how to ride without making a big deal out of it and was at home on the set with all of the western paraphernalia around her. She was a classy lady and never forgot that she was representing the women of the west and their struggles. I was totally captured by Barbara's work in every scene that I had with her and I learned.

[in 1998, on the demise of the TV western series] I think they've just forgotten how to make them. Everybody is so anti-violence these days.

[on his character Nick Barkley in The Big Valley (1965)] Nick Barkley is a driven character with his own set of ethics and morals. He couldn't survive today, because he didn't believe in corporate discussions. I loved him for that . . . He was always truthful, and he would say it like it is, even if others didn't want to hear it. That made him a little bit of a boor, but Nick's philosophy was, "It's better to be a boor than to be less than everything you are".