Luke

**Lucas "Luke" Duke** is a character on *The Dukes of Hazzard*. He was played by Tom Wopat.

## About Luke

Luke, and his younger cousin Bo live in an unincorporated area of Hazzard County, Georgia. They own a 1969 Dodge Charger, nicknamed General Lee, which is painted orange with the Confederate flag on top and the number 01 on the sides. Luke and Bo evade the corrupt politicians of Hazzard County, such as Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.

The Duke family, including cousin Daisy Duke and Uncle Jesse, is well known for their role in the moonshine business. Bo and Luke had both been sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine. As a result, neither was permitted to use firearms, instead preferring to use bows and arrows. The terms of Bo and Luke's probation included staying within the boundaries of Hazzard County, unless given special permission by their Probation Officer, Boss Hogg.

Luke is more intelligent and "cool-headed" than Bo. Where Bo was the one known to get the two into trouble, Luke was the one who usually got them out of it. Luke had served in the U.S. Marine corps. There he learned to hang glide, and drove an APC. One time, two convicts break out of prison and head to the nearby Dukes farm because one remembers Luke as his sergeant from the Marines who busted him and, as payback, forces the Dukes to help them escape across the state line. However, when it came to fisticuffs, Luke was by far the more skilled fighter of the two, and was an amateur boxer in the Corps. Luke was also the more physical one, often performing stunts like jumping onto moving cars during high-speed chases and rescuing Bo from sticky situations.

Despite being quite a skilled driver, Luke rarely drove The General Lee; he usually preferred to ride shotgun because the General Lee had too much horsepower.

Bo once commented, possibly just as a joke, that Luke's probably the father of at least two of the children who live at the Hazzard County Orphanage.

Luke later left Hazzard County, along with his cousin Bo, to join the NASCAR circuit which means they got a long probation permission from Boss Hogg for a while. His cousin Vance replaced him during that time. They both returned the following year.

Luke eventually would leave Hazzard for good and put his military training to good use by becoming a fire jumper for the U.S. Forest Service. During training in Montana, he met and fell in love with a woman named Anita Blackwell, who was a talented singer. He convinced her to leave to pursue her dreams, and she became a successful country music star. Luke met her again in Hollywood, although by then she was married to another man.

## Casting History

* Tom Wopat - *The Dukes of Hazzard* original series
* Johnny Knoxville - 2005 film
* Randy Wayne *The Dukes of Hazzard The Beginning*

## Trivia

* In a TV interview, Tom Wopat admitted that Luke's famous "hood slide" (as seen in the opening credits, originating from the second episode, "Daisy's Song") was actually a mistake; it originated when he was trying to vault over the car to get to the passenger side and his foot accidentally caught the edge of the hood, causing his leg to slide across it. They reshot it without the stumble, but the show aired the slide with the stumble. The move eventually caught on and became the character's hallmark.
	+ Additionally, in this initial slide, Wopat caught his hand on the hood radio aerial, leading to the aerial being removed from all later examples of the car to avoid risk of injury.

## References

1. ↑ Mason Dixon Girls
2. ↑ Follow that Still
3. ↑ Sittin' Dukes
4. ↑ One Armed Bandits
5. ↑ The Dukes of Hazzard Reunion!
6. ↑ Hazzard in Hollywood