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In order to convince producers he was perfect for the part of Bo Duke in the 1980s TV series The Dukes of Hazzard, actor John Schneider decided to adopt an "aw-shucks" Southern accent, a shambling good-ole-boy manner, and then claimed that he hailed from the tiny community of Snellville, Georgia (he was actually born in New York state and raised in Atlanta). The plan worked, and Schneider found instant fame in the form of magazine covers and Dukes of Hazzard lunch boxes during his six-year stint on the hugely successful series.

Fast forward 25 years to the present where a steady rain pours down on a dreary Monday morning in Vancouver on a movie set where the actor is working on the NBC miniseries Point Five (which premiered last fall). Schneider, 43, still has the same blonde locks and charming smile. He's still on a hit TV series (this time it's playing Clark Kent's dad on the popular WB show Smallville), and he still makes the covers of entertainment magazines, including TV Guide, which recently named Schneider one of "The Fifty Sexiest People" in television history (he scraped in at number 49). But what's different about Schneider these days is that he is now a happily married man and father of three who feels like he has gained a whole lot of wisdom from the ups and downs he has faced in the Hollywood spotlight—wisdom that God is now using to help others.

Schneider explains, "The more I think about it, the more I am amazed at the life God has spread behind me so I can further the kingdom of God here and now. I call the hard times that I have had 'Joseph experiences.' I think Joseph experiences are anything God uses from your past to prepare you to be a tool to help someone else now or in the future."

One of the ways God is using John's tumultuous Hollywood past is as a mentor to his younger costars on Smallville. Schneider chuckles, "I've been on TV longer than some of my costars have been alive, so I'm able to give some perspective. I'm able to tell them stories [from his Dukes days] and give them some advice. I can even point them to the Bible and tell them that is where they'll find peace."

Spiritual peace was something Schneider didn't find until after The Dukes of Hazzard went off the air and his life began unraveling both personally (a much publicized divorce) and professionally (job offers became sporadic). But in 1998 Schneider began living with Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash for a time, and it was the conversations he had with the couple that led him to say a prayer one day at the Little Brown Chapel in Studio City, California, that changed his life.

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