John Schneider of the “Dukes of Hazzard” has been entertaining lots of people for a long time. When did he know it would be his life?
Schneider, who played Bo Duke on the CBS show in six of its seven seasons, talked about when he knew he wanted to an actor in a May 2021 interview for Closer Weekly.
“Oh yeah,” he says. “I knew what I was supposed to be [at a young age]. My theory is that when you’re little, 6 or 7 years old, you know exactly what you are supposed to be.”
‘Dukes of Hazzard’ Star Had His Eye Toward Hollywood As Teenager
Schneider says he started making movies with an 8-millimeter camera as well as doing plays.
“I remember telling my dad when I was maybe 12 or 13 that I was going to Hollywood to be a stuntman,” he says. Fans of the “Dukes of Hazzard” will forever hold that image of Schneider along with Tom Wopat, who played Luke Duke, in their minds.
Yet Schneider’s done a lot more than the show on CBS. He played Jonathan Kent on “Smallville” from 2001-11 and also has released a number of albums as a country music singer.
Schneider happened to pick up his “Dukes of Hazzard” role when he was 18 years old. Besides his TV career, he’s also been dedicating a lot of time to helping independent filmmakers get their work done. Schneider built the John Schneider Studios in Holden, La., where he joins others in working on films.
In addition to all of this, did you know he has appeared on stage in some memorable plays? Schneider’s stage work includes roles in “Chicago,” “Grand Hotel,” and “42nd Street.” We could say he’s done pretty good from those dreams of a young boy born on April 8, 1960, in Mount Kisco, N.Y.
Schneider Holds Special Memories Of Working With Costar Denver Pyle
While we mentioned Schneider and Wopat as stars of the “Dukes of Hazzard,” obviously there were other actors on the show, too. Catherine Bach played Daisy Duke and Denver Pyle played Uncle Jesse throughout the show’s run.
Pyle, as classic TV fans will know, was in numerous shows throughout his career. He died on Dec. 25, 1997, at 77 years old. Some fans will recall his appearances as Briscoe Darling on “The Andy Griffith Show.”
But Schneider holds some fond, special memories of working with Pyle on their show.
“All of my favorite memories from ‘Dukes’ are sitting with Denver Pyle,” Schneider says in the same interview with Closer Weekly. “We’d talk about ‘The Doris Day Show’ [which he co-starred on] and what it was like for him to work with John Ford and John Wayne.”
Schneider says he and Pyle would talk a lot about life, too.
“He was, in every regard, like a real uncle to me,” he says. “We were thick as thieves for all the years I did ‘Dukes.'”
