Tom Wopat

Born: September 9, 1951 in Lodi, Wisconsin, USA

He’ll forever be remembered as strapping, good ol’ boy Luke Duke, the virile, blue-eyed, dark-haired, plaid-shirted rascal (equally good-looking John Schneider was the strapping, plaid-shirted blond cousin) on the rough-and-tumble bucolic 80s series The Dukes of Hazzard (1979). Where others may have fallen by the TV wayside, however, after the cancellation of such a popular series, Wopat moved on and reverted back to his first true love – music – successfully refocusing as a recording artist and musical leading man of Broadway and regional shows.

As far as The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) goes, it was what it was. It was a huge phenomenon. If you have a success of that stature you should embrace it. And you shouldn’t deny it. Some people who have a popular television show will tell you that they wanted to “be more artistic” and deny that that TV show was what they wanted to do, but to me it’s all work.