Bach played kissin' cousin Daisy Duke in the popular TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. The show ran from 1979-85 and Bach, dressed as Daisy in short-shorts and extra-tight shirts, became a star and a popular poster girl. From 1993-1995 she appeared as a wildlife rancher in the series African Skies.
Daisy Duke was played by Jessica Simpson in the 2005 feature film version of The Dukes of Hazzard. Bach, who was 51 when the film came out, was not considered for the role.
American actress Catherine Bach was born in Ohio, but spent most of her high school years in South Dakota with her father. As soon as she finished high school, Catherine flew to California to pursue the acting career she'd been dreaming about since seeing her actor uncle, Tony Verdugo, in a stage production. Supporting herself with various day jobs, Catherine took dancing lessons, made the audition rounds, and eventually attained a few TV bits and movie roles. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1973) was her most widely seen film role, principally because of what she didn't wear in it; but her best role was an all-too-brief appearance in The Midnight Man (1974), as Natalie Clayborne, the troubled college coed at the center of a mystery involving blackmail and murder.
In 1978 Bach was cast along with John Schneider and Tom Wopat as the "Dukes of Hazzard" in the weekly CBS TV series of the same name. The series was a comedy adventure about a hillbilly family, their souped-up automobile (The General Lee), and their corrupt antagonist, Boss Hogg. As Daisy Duke, Catherine spent most of her time in T-shirts and cutoffs, and thus the actress became a favorite of the young-college-boy set. Within a few months of Dukes of Hazzard's debut, the Catherine Bach poster was outselling the Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers posters in quite a few cities. Catherine stayed with Dukes until its cancellation in 1985, even weathering the "siege of 1981," when her costars Schneider and Wopat left over contract differences and were briefly replaced by two lookalike actors. Like many 1970s TV stars, Catherine Bach found the movie offers, poster contracts, personal appearances and talk-show gigs slowly evaporating as her series faded from the public's memory. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
David Shaw (m. 1976–1981) «start: (1976)–end+1: (1982)»"Marriage: David Shaw to Catherine Bach" Location:(linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Bach)
Peter Lopez (m. 1990–2010) «start: (1990)–end+1: (2011)»"Marriage: Peter Lopez to Catherine Bach" Location:(linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Bach)
Bach's professional debut was as one of the children in a production of The Sound of Music.[3] Bach's first screen appearance was in the Burt Lancaster murder mystery, The Midnight Man, shot in Upstate South Carolina in 1973, in which she played the murdered coed, Natalie Claiburn.
She heard about the audition for The Dukes of Hazzard through her husband.[4] When she arrived there, she found the producers were looking for a Dolly Parton-lookalike; despite not looking like what they were searching for, she was hired on the spot.[5] One of the earliest costume ideas from the producers was that she wear a tight white turtleneck, go-go boots and a poodle skirt, but Bach asked if she could bring her own outfit, which was a homemade T-shirt, a pair of cut-off denim shorts and high heels.[6] Bach had concerns about the appropriateness of the cut-off shorts at first, saying she couldn't wear them in a restaurant scene. When prompted by the producers to visit a restaurant across the street, Bach found the waitresses were wearing "little miniskirts that matched the tablecloths!".[4]
At the suggestion of the show's producers, Bach posed as Daisy Duke for a poster, which sold 5 million copies.[7] The poster once caused a stir when Bach visited the White House to visit one of her former schoolteachers who was then working there.[8]
In 1985, she served as the model for the figurehead for the schooner Californian.[9]
At one time[when?] her legs were insured for $1,000,000.[10]
Bach was born in Cleveland, Ohio,[1] the daughter of Norma Kucera, an acupuncturist, and Bernard Bachman, a rancher.[13] Her maternal grandparents were Mexican and her father was of German ancestry.[14][15] She is descended from the Verdugo family,[16] one of California's earliest landed families.[9] She grew up on a ranch in South Dakota,[11] where she visited her grandparents in Faith, South Dakota, and graduated from Stevens High School (1970) in Rapid City, South Dakota. She studied arts at UCLA where she supplemented her income by making clothes for friends and theatre groups.[11]
She married David Shaw (son of Angela Lansbury)[3] in 1976; the couple divorced in 1981. Bach married entertainment lawyer Peter Lopez in August 1990. They had two daughters, Sophia and Laura. On April 30, 2010, 60 year old Lopez was found shot dead - an apparent suicide.[17]
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