Ricky Schroder

Richard Bartlett "Ricky" Schroder, Jr. (born April 13, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He debuted in the film The Champ (1979), going on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons. He has continued acting as an adult, notably on the western miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), and the crime-drama series NYPD Blue.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life and career
2 Adult career
3 Personal life
4 Filmography 4.1 Film
4.2 Television
4.3 Director

5 Awards and nominations
6 References
7 External links

Early life and career[edit]

Schroder was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York and raised on Staten Island, New York City. He is the son of Diane, an employee at AT&T which is also the same company that employed his father, Richard Bartlett Schroder, Sr. After his older sister, Dawn[1] and he were born Rick's mother quit her job to raise the children. A good-looking child, Schroder's mother began taking him to photo shoots when he was only three months old. In his own words, he must have been a natural, because he started working right away, never having taken an acting lesson in his life. He appeared in many catalogs, and by the time he was six years old, he had appeared in sixty advertisements.

Leaping from commercials to the silver screen, Schroder made his acting debut as the son of Jon Voight's character in the 1979 remake of the 1931 film The Champ. Schroder performed so well in his first role, that in 1980 he was nominated for and subsequently won a Golden Globe award for Best New Male Star of the Year in a Motion Picture at the age of nine.[citation needed]

After winning the Golden Globe, Schroder embarked on a three-month publicity tour around the world. He toured the locales of Asia and Europe, even meeting the Queen of England and the Pope.[citation needed]

Following his role in The Champ, Schroder was removed from school by his parents in the third grade to focus on his career. He moved to Los Angeles with his mother, but his father remained in New York and kept his job with AT&T. Every weekend, Rick Sr. would fly to Los Angeles to see his wife and son.[citation needed]

In the following year, he made a Walt Disney feature film called The Last Flight of Noah's Ark with Elliott Gould. He also starred as the title character in the film Little Lord Fauntleroy alongside Alec Guinness in 1980.

Schroder became well known as the star of the series Silver Spoons, playing Ricky Stratton. He portrayed the spoiled child of his millionaire father, Edward Stratton, played by Joel Higgins. In a make-believe upbringing that was similar to his own at the time, young Ricky was trying to live as a normal child in spite of his special status. His success on the show earned him two Young Artist awards.[citation needed]

Like many other child stars, Schroder struggled with his identity as an actor when Silver Spoons ended. Prospective roles were few and far between, and mainly he was sought after to play the boyish looking teenager or blond-haired heart throb. Instead of succumbing to the perils that have befallen many other child actors, such as alcohol, drugs and crime, Schroder reinvented himself. He dropped the 'y' from his first name and ensured that his new label as 'Rick Schroder' did not derive itself from his former child persona. His mother enrolled him in Calabasas High School in Calabasas, California, to finish his senior year. Schroder found the environment alien to him, and he had trouble adjusting. He and the other kids didn't necessarily get along right away. Having spent his formative years with a tutor instead of in a classroom, simple things such as sitting in class all day and raising his hand to speak were foreign concepts that he had trouble adjusting to.[2] In 1988, the year after Silver Spoons ended, he starred in a prime-time CBS-TV feature movie based on a true story, the serious drama Too Young the Hero, playing a 12-year-old who passes for 17 to enlist in World War II.

He made an appearance as the guest timekeeper in Wrestlemania 2 for The Main Event steel cage match between Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy. Schroder was ranked #18 in VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Kid Stars and #33 in VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Teen Stars.

Adult career[edit]

After graduating from high school, Schroder enrolled himself in Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado. Still accepting jobs in various TV movies during this time, Schroder still struggled to establish himself as a serious adult actor.[citation needed]

Schroder's co-starring role in the Western mini-series Lonesome Dove and its sequel, Return to Lonesome Dove, helped in his attempt to be recognized in more mature roles. His roles as Danny Sorenson on three seasons of NYPD Blue, nurse Paul Flowers in Scrubs, Dr. Dylan West on Strong Medicine, and Mike Doyle on the 2007 season of 24 worked to cement that perception with the viewing audience.

In 2004, Schroder wrote and directed the feature film Black Cloud, a drama about a Navajo boxer. The same year he directed and starred in the music video for "Whiskey Lullaby",[3] a song by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss. Schroder's son Luke and daughter Cambrie also appeared in the video. The same directorial experience garnered Schroder another award for Best Music Video at the 2005 Nashville Film Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. At the 2005 CMT Music Awards, the video won an award for Collaborative Video of the Year, while Schroder won for Director of the Year.[citation needed]

In 2007, Schroder announced that he was changing his credit back to "Ricky" beginning with his role on 24.[4] In an interview, he admitted that changing his name from "Ricky" to "Rick" at 18, upon prompting by his agent, was a mistake. "'Rick' never really fit,” he said. “I tried for 18 years to make it work, and no one wanted to call me 'Rick'. It should always have been 'Ricky'. That’s what it always should have been, so I’m going back to it.”[5]

In 2009, he directed the adventure horror film Hellhounds.[6]

In June 2009, at Andrea's strong urging, Schroder packed up the family and moved to Spain. They rented a home in Barcelona for a year, and celebrated Schroder's 40th birthday in Marrakesh, Morocco. His wife had always wanted to live abroad, and also wanted their children to be able to gain a new perspective on their lives, one that could only be gleaned by immersing themselves in a foreign country. The time spent abroad allowed the family to reconnect with each other and become recommitted to the family as a whole. Since returning in June 2010, Schroder has gone right back to his job in the entertainment industry.[citation needed]

Schroder guest-starred in a January 2011 episode of ABC's No Ordinary Family.[7]

His production company, Ricky Schroder Productions, has produced Starting Strong, a TV show for the U.S. Army, since 2013, as well as other projects including The Fighting Season. In 2013, the production company produced the movie Our Wild Hearts for the Hallmark Channel, in which Schroder starred with his daughter Cambrie.[citation needed]

Personal life[edit]

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While filming a television movie in 1991 in Canada titled Blood River, Schroder met a student named Andrea Bernard. Andrea was a fan of Schroder's growing up, Schroder married Andrea Bernard on September 26, 1992. Together, they have four children: Holden (b. January 1992), who was named after Schroder's The Earthling co-star William Holden,[8] Luke (b. August 1993), Cambrie (b. November 1996), and Faith (b. August 2001).[citation needed] Andrea Bernard Schroder is an interior designer and was a contestant on Season Two of Top Design on Bravo. Andrea is a regular on Hallmark's Home and Family, owns a candle company[9] with distribution through Hallmark retail and Nordstroms, and is an interior designer and real estate developer, actively engaged in both pursuits. She is a recurring face on the Bravo show Top Design as an interior designer.

Schroder is an active member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and is very active within children's charity circles. He is an auto-racing enthusiast and a past winner of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach, California. He is also a supporter of Racing For Kids, in which celebrities will race for money to be donated to fund health care for children. Also, Rick and his wife are active celebrity "Advocacy Ambassadors" for the child abuse prevention and treatment non-profit organization Childhelp. He is working with Paul Mitchell Hair Schools to build water wells in Guatemala via Wells of Hope. Schroder is active in support of the Cadet Youth Academy program.[citation needed]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year

Title

Role

Notes

1979 The Champ T.J.
1980 The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Bobby
1980 The Earthling Shawn Daley
1980 Little Lord Fauntleroy Ceddie Errol (Little Lord Fauntleroy)
1991 Across the Tracks Billy Maloney
1994 There Goes My Baby Stick
1995 Crimson Tide Lt. Paul Hellerman
2001 The Lost Battalion Maj. Charles White Whittlesey
2002 Poolhall Junkies Brad
2003 Face of Terror Nick Harper
2003 Consequence John Wolfe
2004 Black Cloud Eddie
2009 Locker 13 Tommy Novak
2010 Blood Done Sign My Name Vernon Tyson
2010 Get Him to the Greek Himself

Television[edit]

Year

Title

Role

Notes

1982 Something So Right Joey Bosnick Movie
1982–1987 Silver Spoons Ricky Stratton 116 episodes
1983 Faerie Tale Theatre Hansel Episode: "Hansel and Gretel"
1983 Two Kinds of Love Robbie Farley Movie
1985 A Reason to Live Alex Stewart Movie
1988 Too Young the Hero Calvin Graham Movie
1989 Terror on Highway 91 Clay Nelson Movie
1989 Out on the Edge Danny Evetts Movie
1989 Lonesome Dove Newt Dobbs Miniseries; 4 episodes
1990 A Son's Promise Terry O'Kelly Movie
1990 The Stranger Within Mark
1991 Blood River Jimmy Pearls ("The Kid") Movie
1991 My Son Johnny Johnny Movie
1992 Miles from Nowhere Frank Reilly Movie
1993 Call of the Wild John Thornton Movie
1993 Return to Lonesome Dove Newt Dobbs 4 episodes
1994 James A. Michener's Texas Otto MacNab Movie
1994 To My Daughter with Love Joey Cutter Movie
1994 In the Heat of the Night A bad guy Episode: "Dangerous Engagement"
1996 Innocent Victims Billy Richardson Movie
1997 Ebenezer Samuel Benson Movie
1997 Too Close to Home Nick Donahue Movie
1997 Detention: The Siege at Johnson High Jason Copeland Movie
1997 Heart Full of Rain Isaiah Dockett Movie
1998–2001 NYPD Blue Det. Danny Sorenson 58 episodes
1999 What We Did That Night Henry Movie
2001 The Lost Battalion Major Charles White Whittlesey Movie
2003 Scrubs Nurse Paul Flowers 4 episodes
2005 14 Hours Dr. Foster Movie
2005–2006 Strong Medicine Dr. Dylan West 19 episodes
2006 Robot Chicken Cloudkeeper Episode: "Password: Swordfish"
2007 24 Mike Doyle 12 episodes
2008 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jonathan Brock Movie
2008 The Andromeda Strain Major Bill Keane MD 4 episodes
2010 No Ordinary Family Dave Cotten Episode: "No Ordinary Friends"
2011 To the Mat Aaron Movie
2013 Our Wild Hearts Jack Thomas Movie
2015 Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors Robert Lee Parton Movie

Director[edit]
2004: Black Cloud
2009: Locker 13[10]
2009: Hellhounds[11]
2013: Our Wild Hearts[12]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year

Association

Category

Title of work

Result

1979 Golden Globe Awards New Star of the Year – Actor The Champ Won
Young Artist Awards Best Juvenile Actor in a Motion Picture The Champ Nominated
1980 Best Young Actor in a Major Motion Picture The Last Flight of Noah's Ark Nominated
1981 Best Young Motion Picture Actor The Earthling Won
1982 Best Young Actor in a Movie Made for Television Little Lord Fauntleroy Nominated
Best Young Actor in a New Television Series Silver Spoons Won
1983 Best Young Actor in a New Television Series Silver Spoons Won
1990 Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film The Stranger Within Nominated
1999 Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series NYPD Blue Nominated
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series NYPD Blue Nominated