Ricky Schroder

Early life and career

Schroder was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, and raised on Staten Island, New York City. He is the son of Diane and Richard Bartlett Schroder, both former employees of AT&T. Schroder's mother quit her job to raise him and his sister Dawn, taking him to photo shoots when he was only three months old. As a child, Schroder appeared in many catalogs, and by age six, he had appeared in 60 advertisements.

Schroder made his film debut as the son of Jon Voight's character in The Champ, a 1979 remake of the 1931 film of the same name. He was nominated for, and subsequently won, a Golden Globe award in 1980 for Best New Male Star of the Year in a Motion Picture. 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 City and kept his job with AT&T. The following year, Schroder appeared in the Disney feature film The Last Flight of Noah's Ark with Elliott Gould. He also starred as the title character in Little Lord Fauntleroy, alongside Alec Guinness.

Schroder then became well known as the star of the television series Silver Spoons. He played a starring role as Ricky Stratton, the son of a wealthy and eccentric millionaire, Eddie Stratton. His performance earned him two Young Artist Awards. He struggled with his identity as an actor when Silver Spoons ended. Prospective roles were rare, and he was mainly designated to play boyish-looking teenagers or blond-haired heartthrobs. Schroder avoided the vices of other child actors and attempted to establish himself as a more mature actor, dropping the "y" from his first name. His mother enrolled him in Calabasas High School, but Schroder had trouble adjusting to the new environment.

In 1988, the year after Silver Spoons ended, Schroder starred in a primetime CBS TV movie based on a true story, the drama Too Young the Hero, as a 12-year-old who passes for 17 to enlist in World War II. He also appeared as the guest timekeeper in Wrestlemania 2 for a match between Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy. He was ranked #18 in VH1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars list and #33 in the 100 Greatest Teen Stars list.

Adult career

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, modifying his childhood nickname to Rick Schroder. He eventually bought a large piece of land in Colorado. His 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", 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 Schroeder won for Director of the Year. In 2007, Schroder announced that he was changing his credit back to "Ricky" beginning with his role on 24. 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.”

In 2009, he directed the adventure horror film Hellhounds. 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. After returning in June 2010, Schroder went back to the entertainment industry. He guest-starred in a January 2011 episode of ABC's No Ordinary Family. 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.

Personal life

While in Canada filming the television movie Blood River in 1991, Schroder met a 17-year-old student named Andrea Bernard. The couple married on September 26, 1992, and went on to have four children: Holden (born January 1992), who was named after Schroder's The Earthling co-star William Holden, Luke (born August 1993), Cambrie (born November 1996), and Faith (born August 2001).. He is a convert member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His wife is an interior designer and was a contestant on Top Design on Bravo. She is a regular on the Hallmark Channel's Home and Family, owns a candle company with distribution through Hallmark and Nordstrom and is also a real estate developer.

On September 13, 2016 it was announced that Andrea had filed for divorce weeks before their 24th anniversary.

Schroder is an active member of the National Rifle Association 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 race to raise money for children's health care. Schroder and his wife are active celebrity "Advocacy Ambassadors" for the child abuse prevention and treatment organization Childhelp. He is working with Paul Mitchell schools to build water wells in Guatemala via Wells of Hope. Schroder is active in support of the Cadet Youth Academy program.