Daisy Mae Duke is a fictional character, played by Catherine Bach, from the American television series The Dukes of Hazzard. She was the cousin of Bo and Luke, the main protagonists of the show, who were themselves cousins to each other.
In the 1997 Reunion movie, Daisy says her mother died when she was born.
Daisy would frequently become involved in the Dukes' car chases, using one of her many cars. Daisy also worked as a server at the Boar's Nest, the local bar owned by Boss Hogg.
Personal character
Despite her appearance as a naive (and provocatively dressed) Southern belle, Daisy was a very outgoing person who could more than hold her own when the chips were down. For instance, during one adventure with a stolen armored personnel carrier, Daisy is able to accurately fire its main gun while the vehicle is in motion with barely any instruction from her veteran cousin and Uncle Jesse cheerfully decorates her as "Sharpshooter of the Week" for the feat. In addition to fending off intoxicated would-be suitors at The Boar's Nest, she frequently found herself caught up in the ongoing war between Boss Hogg and her family, the Duke clan. Her job at Boss's restaurant gave her the opportunity to eavesdrop on private conversations between Boss and his stooges (usually Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane), often discovering important information that she could pass on to Uncle Jesse and the Duke boys. Her continued employment at the Boars' Nest in spite of her obvious loyalty to her family was seen on the TV show as both a sign of her status and popularity in Hazzard County, and a corresponding lack of intelligence on Boss Hogg's part.
Daisy never found a long-lasting beau of her own over the course of the series. In the reunion movie, she is said to have left Hazzard to get married, but was subsequently divorced. After her marriage ended, she was pursuing a graduate degree at Duke University, and upon her return to Hazzard agreed to marry Enos Strate, who long had a crush on her, but backed out at the last minute for fear of another debacle like her first marriage.
Personal vehicles
Her first car was a yellow 1972 Plymouth Road Runner with a black stripe along the sides and over the roof. Although the car was intended to be a Plymouth Road Runner, later episodes used a 1971 Plymouth Satellite with a matching "Road Runner" stripe painted behind the rear window. The car met its demise when the brakes failed while Bo and Luke were driving it in the second season episode "The Runaway", sending it over a cliff. (Due to the episodes being broadcast in a different order to that of which they were filmed, the Plymouth made several returns after it was supposedly destroyed.) After losing that car, she received her trademark white 1980 Jeep CJ-7 "Golden Eagle" named The Dixie which had a Golden Eagle emblem on the hood and the name "Dixie" on the hood sides. As with other vehicles in the show, there were different versions of the Jeep shown in various episodes. Sometimes the Jeep would have a different paint scheme with the "Dixie" name on the hood instead of the doors, and it would alternate between automatic and manual transmissions.
As a sex symbol
Daisy Duke, played by
Catherine Bach, wearing a red bikini on two episodes.
Daisy Duke was both the main female protagonist and the sex symbol on Dukes of Hazzard. On two episodes Daisy wore a red bikini to distract Cletus and a truck driver. She appeared numerous times wearing cut off jean shorts, Daisy Dukes, a name that later became accepted vernacular for a type of women's cut-off shorts.
The network censors believed that Daisy's famous cut-off shorts alone would be too revealing. (The shorts were so short, that the only way the producers could get them on air was for Catherine Bach to wear flesh tone tights with them, to ensure that the shorts didn't reveal more of her than intended). In spite of that, the official Daisy Duke poster reportedly outsold those featuring the era's other sex symbols, Farrah Fawcett and Raquel Welch.
Catherine Bach made many of Daisy's costumes herself, especially the early ones, including the red bikini in the first episode, seen during the show's opening credits.
In film
2005 version
In the 2005 feature film The Dukes of Hazzard, Daisy Duke was portrayed by Jessica Simpson. While film critics panned Simpson's performance, (claiming that her portrayal had little in common with the character Catherine Bach created, and that she was merely cast because of her celebrity status) fans loved her version of the character, many saying that her performance rivaled that of Catherine Bach's.
Daisy's costume was slightly modified for the film to make her more overtly sexual: her Daisy Dukes were shorter than they were on the series, and her shirts showed much more cleavage than Bach ever did. She also didn't wear pantyhose under her shorts, going bare legged in the film. Another major difference in her appearance was that Simpson's hair remained blonde, whereas Bach was a brunette. Simpson did, however, wear a brunette wig as a disguise during the film.
2007 film
In the 2007 film, The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, Daisy starts out as an innocent Bible school girl, and is unattractive. She wears large flannel shirts, jeans, big glasses, and wears her hair in a bun. To get a job waitressing at the Boar's Nest and to attract a boy, she decides to change her look. She goes through several outfits, before finally settling on her signature look. She is also a brunette in this movie. Daisy is played by April Scott.
