The character Eugene Barkley, fourth son of the Barkley clan whose lives formed the basis of the classic western series "The Big Valley," left the ranch to go to college. That's the easy part.

As for the man who played him, Charles Briles, that's a little trickier.

He only appeared in the first season, which aired on ABC in 1965. He was drafted by the U.S. Army, also in 1965. This much we know. What we don't know is if these two facts are related.

One version of events is that he was drafted while working on the show, which is why his character was abruptly written out. The other is that the character wasn't very popular and so was written out, prior to the actor being drafted.

A review of the series in the Washington Post chalked up Eugene's departure to the fact that he "doesn't do or say much of anything."

We do know that Briles didn't do much acting work after "Big Valley." However, what he did stuck mostly to the western genre. He appeared in a couple of episodes of "Bonanza" and "Petticoat Junction," and he had a small role in the 1969 Elvis Presley movie "The Trouble with Girls."

That's particularly unfortunate since "The Big Valley" was such a star-maker for other members of its cast -- namely Lee Majors (the eventual Six Million Dollar Man) and future "Dynasty" star Linda Evans. Oscar-nominated silver screen great Barbara Stanwyck was, of course, already a star before joining "The Big Valley" as the Barkley matriarch.

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