Catherine Bach Goes to S. Africa for Some Non-’Hazzard’ous Duty

Although Catherine Bach had supporting roles in feature films starring such heavyweights as Burt Lancaster, Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges and Burt Reynolds, the 6 1/2-year run of “The Dukes of Hazzard” typecast the actress of German-Mexican ancestry as good-ole-girl Daisy Duke. “It was a stereotype that has been really, really tough to overcome,” she says. “People in the industry kept seeing me that way.”

Bach’s financial independence, love for travel, and refusal to play “second-class Daisy Dukes” let her sit on the sidelines for a few years. “I wasn’t going to do anything unless I could give it my heart and soul.”

Now she’s back before the cameras in turbulent South Africa as the star of “African Skies,” a half-hour adventure series airing on cable’s Family Channel on Sundays at 8 p.m. “I love the part. This (business) woman, after a tragedy--her husband dies--picks up her teen-age son and moves to this most incredible place.”

Robert Mitchum co-stars as her tycoon father-in-law who finances her life on a ranch where Margo (Bach) is active in studying wildlife and protecting the environment.

Living in an apartment in Johannesburg, 45 minutes from the “African Skies” location, Bach, 38, relishes in her anonymity as “Dukes” didn’t play there. “To the people here I’m just an American girl over here working,” she says. She goes to the gym, hikes, weekends at preserves and speaks a little Zulu. “I’m definitely fitting right into the culture.”

Her husband of 2 1/2 years, entertainment lawyer Peter Lopez, has visited from their new home in Sherman Oaks. “I have the most wonderful husband. It makes it possible to be over here.”