The 80s was all about the American family sitcom, and one that captured viewers was the award-winning show Silver Spoons. At the heart of the series was the relationship between a child-like father and a mature child, who was played by actor Ricky Schroder. The blond-haired kid used his good looks to keep audiences hooked and coming back season after season. Let’s see what Ricky Schroder did with his career once the silver spoon was taken out of his hand.
Background info
A true New Yorker, Richard Bartlett Schroder Jr. was born in Brooklyn to parents Diane Katherine Bartlett and Richard John Schroder Sr. on April 13th, 1970, and was raised in Staten Island, New York. A fun fact about his parents is that they both worked for AT&T. He has one older sister, Dawn Gregg (credited in earlier roles as Dawn Schroder) who appeared in shows like Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life.
Ricky was only three months old when his mom started bringing him to photo shoots, but his first time on screen was in the 1979 film The Champ, where he played Jon Voight’s son, T. J. Flynn. The role would earn Schroder a New Star of the Year Award at that year’s Golden Globes.
Ricky followed that up with a busy 1980, appearing in films The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark, The Earthling, and Little Lord Fauntieroy that year. He earned an award nomination for each role, and went on to win Best Young Motion Picture Actor at the Young Artist Awards in 1981.
Silver Spoons
Ricky’s first TV role would be a pretty well-known one, when he was cast as Ricky Stratton on the hit series Silver Spoons in 1982. For all 116 episodes across all five seasons, Ricky’s character Ricky dealt with meeting and getting to know his ultra-wealthy father Edward, played by Joel Higgins, and learning how to balance his seriousness with his father’s immaturity.
The show also saw Alfonso Ribeiro (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Ozark) in supporting roles across various seasons.
Schroder’s time as Ricky allowed him to grab two more Young Artist Awards for Best Young Actor in a New Television Series in 1982 and 1983. The show came to an end in 1987, after a time change led to too-low ratings.
What did Ricky do after Silver Spoons?
After Silver Spoons was canceled, Ricky spent a lot of time on the small screen, appearing mostly in TV movies. He played Calvin Graham in the 1998 made-for-television historical war drama Too Young the Hero, and in 1990 he starred in A Son’s Promise and The Stranger Within. His role as Mark in The Stranger Within earned Ricky a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Television Film.
But just because Schroder loved the small screen doesn’t mean he stayed away from the big screen. He played Billy Maloney in the 1991 drama Across the Tracks alongside Brad Pitt and as Stick in the 1994 comedy There Goes My Baby. He also had a part in the 1995 Jerry Bruckheimer action-thriller Crimson Tide.
Schroder made TV films his go-to until 1998, when he was cast as Detective Danny Sorenson on the well-beloved police show NYPD Blue. For 59 episodes across seasons six, seven, and eight, Schroder portrayed the aggressive but sensible detective. That is, until 2001, when Schroder spoke out about his disconnect from the character, stating he didn’t like how Sorenson was being presented by the writers. The writers took that to heart and had his character killed off. But before his demise on the show, he was nominated for two SAG Awards in 1999.
After his time on NYPD Blue met its fate, Schroder kept his TV film relationship alive when he appeared in the 2001 TV docudrama The Lost Battalion, the 2005 docudrama 14: Hours, and the 2008 action adventure TV film, Journey to the Center of the Earth. He also had shorter runs on shows like Scrubs in 2003, Strong Medicine from 2005 until 2006, and 24 in 2007.
What is Ricky Schroder doing now?
Ricky is still acting and has three projects in the works. He will appear in the Yid Vicious horror flick Realm of the Undead 2, which is in post, the comedy West of Dead, which is in pre-production, and another Yid Vicious horror film, Clown Motel 3, which is also in pre-production.
Ricky padded his resume when he added writer and director in 2004 for the film Black Cloud. The movie went on to win Best Film at the 2004 San Diego Film Festival, so it was a risk well taken. That led to Ricky directing and producing multiple projects, including TV movies Hellhounds and Our Wild Hearts, and the TV mini-series The Fighting Season.
Though he doesn’t connect with fans on platforms like Cameo, you could always see what he’s up to on his personal Instagram page.
Personal life
Ricky married producer and writer Andrea Bernard in September 1992, after the pair met two years earlier when Andrea was 18, and he was 20. The couple share four children, son Holden Richard, born in January 1992, son Luke William, born in August 1993, daughter Cambrie, born in November 1996, and daughter Faith Anne, born in August 2001.
Unfortunately, curtains closed on the young turned long-time love, and they separated in 2016, with Andrea filing for divorce that year. Technically, for whatever reason, the pair is still legally married, though definitely not together.
With upcoming projects in the works, we know Ricky Schroder will be on screens for a while longer. And with his extensive filmography, there is no shortage of material to revisit. We’ll just have to wait to see what he does next in his career.
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