Tom Wopat AKA "Luke Duke"

Tom Wopat Filmography

Tom Wopat was born on September 9, 1951, on a dairy farm in Lodi, Wisconsin.  Tom was the middle child among eight brothers and sisters.  Wopat began studying voice when he was fourteen, and later enrolled at the University of Wisconsin as a music major.  Wopat moved on as he began playing with a rock band.  Later he returned to another semester of voice studies but it didn't last long again.      He tried out for a audition for the Houston Grand Opera.  They told Wopat that he had a nice voice but he needed more voice studies and practice.  Wopat moved on to Broadway a more natural fit for him.       Wopat joined the Augusta Barn Theatre in Michigan as an unpaid apprentice.  Wopat made his Barn debut in the musical 1776.  Wopat later moved to New York where he landed a role in A Bistro Car on the CNR.      Wopat's success kept on coming with the title role of The Robber Bridegroom at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., made his Broadway debut in Cy Coleman's I Love My Wife and was also the last Cult that preformed in Richard Rodgers saw star production of Oklahoma.  He squeeze in a couple of TV commercials and a role in the soap opera One Life to Live.       Wopat heard that CBS was starting a series called the Dukes of Hazzard, so Wopat headed out on a flight to Los Angeles.  Wopat got the part of Luke Duke within the first week.                                                                               Information from the Dukes of Hazzard Unofficial Companion.

Luke Duke was the oldest of the three cousins in the Duke clan.  Luke was a Marine out of high school for four years.  He was the one that always got the Dukes out of trouble.  Luke also was a boxer in the Marines so he was an excellent fighter when the going got tough.  He was the backbone of the Duke family.