Tom Wopat

Tom Wopat earned broad recognition playing "The Smart Cousin" Luke Duke on the 1970s series The Dukes of Hazard, yet he invested equal determination in carving out a place for himself inside the musical theater world. Raised on a modest dairy farm in Lodi, WI, he first explored singing and dancing through school musicals at age twelve. After finishing high school he entered the University of Wisconsin in Madison to study music, juggling roles in productions of West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, and South Pacific with gigs in a local rock band. His move to New York City in 1977 immersed him in Broadway and off-Broadway work, which soon generated larger chances, among them a California audition for a Georgia-based action-adventure program. The series lasted seven seasons and gave Wopat both on-camera time and the chance to direct five episodes in its later years. Once the Duke boys wrapped production, he alternated between fronting the country-rock outfit the North Hollywood All-Stars and appearing in stage musicals. In 1987 he chose a split existence, spending half of each year in Los Angeles for television and theater commitments and the remaining months in Nashville writing and recording country albums. During the late '90s Wopat appeared on the critically acclaimed TV show Cybil and took the stage in a touring production of Annie Get Your Gun; in 2000 he issued the standards album The Still of the Night on Angel Records.