About Me
This page is dedicated to Mr. Tom Wopat. It's run by myself, Kaylee. If you have any questions or concerns, please send me a message. I AM NOT, TOM WOPAT OR IN ANYWAY TRYING TO BE. So do NOT send me messages asking/involving anything like that. Thank you, it would be appreciated.
Anyways, please just have fun & appreciate Tom!!! I have met Tom before, so if you wanna know how he is in real life, just ask. But I'll tell you now, he's a sweetheart!
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Tom Wopat Bio. (Bio, credited to www.wopat.com)
Born on a small dairy farm in Lodi, Wisconsin, Wopat began singing and dancing in school musicals when he was 12 years old. Upon graduating high school, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to study music, at one point leaving to be the lead singer and trombone player in a rock band. But he later returned and began his acting career in campus productions of the musicals West Side Story, Jesus Christ, Superstar and South Pacific. After performing in summer stock productions at the Barn Theatre in Michigan for two seasons, he decided to go to New York for "a serious try at musical comedy."
Within weeks of his arrival in 1977, he appeared off-Broadway in the musical A Bistro Car On The CNR. He then signed for the title role of The Robber Bridegroom at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Once back in New York, he made his Broadway debut in Cy Coleman's I Love My Wife. After three months, he joined an off-broadway production of Oklahoma as Curly.
Soon after his whirlwind success, during a trip to the West Coast, he auditioned for and won the role of Luke Duke. "I read the script in New York on Tuesday and was on a plane that night for Los Angeles. My screen test was on Friday and 10 days later I was in Georgia for filming."
For seven seasons, 1978-1985, The Dukes Of Hazzard was a popular phenomenon. For Wopat, it provided both stardom and an education. "I had a wonderful time," he says. "I developed relationships that I've held in good stead, I learned both the responsibility a leading man has in a show, and I learned how to direct (which he did for five episodes)."
During the show's span, Wopat also continued to develop his musical talents, touring the country with his then-band, The North Hollywood All-Stars. When the series went off the air, the singer-songwriter-guitarist returned to his roots, creatively and geographically. In 1977, he moved to Nashville, where he resides for half of each year, and debuted his brand of contemporary country-rock with the album Tom Wopat, produced by Mike Post. "Although I live in both Los Angeles and Nashville for career reasons, I'm happy spending a lot of time in Nashville," he says. "I sincerely love the town because it feels like the Midwest to me and there's a great climate for writing music."
His follow-up album, A Little Bit Closer, was released later that same year, produced by Herb Pederson and Jerry Crutchfield. Then came Don't Look Back (1991) also produced by Crutchfield, and Learning To Love (1992), produced by Rick Hall. Along the way, Wopat enjoyed two Top 20 country hits (The Rock and Roll of Love and Susannah), a Top 5 country video A Little Bit Closer and a top 5 hit as a songwriter co-writing Shadow of a Doubt, performed by Earl Thomas Conley. With his current group, The Full Moon Band, he's also toured throughout the U.S. and Europe.
During the same period, he returned to the stage. In the summer of 1986, Wopat starred in Carousel at the Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He then played the Greek god Jupiter in Olympus On My Mind at the Lambs Theatre in New York. From January to June 1991, he took over the lead role of the hard-boiled Detective Stone in the 1990 Tony Award-winning Best Musical City of Angels at Broadway's Virginia Theatre. From October 1992 to April 1993, he was Sky Masterson in the 1992 Tony Award-winning revival of Guys and Dolls at the Martin Beck Theatre. For the winter of 1993-1994 season, he reprised that role. On occasion, he'd also sing Broadway show tunes with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.
There was still television, too, reuniting with fellow Duke, John Schneider, for a CBS Movie-Of-The-Week, Christmas Comes To Willow Creek (1987), then starring in the drama series Blue Skies (CBS,1988) and Peaceable Kingdom with Lindsey Wagner (CBS, 1989). In December 1992, Wopat starred in the critically-acclaimed NBC movie-of-the- week Just My Imagination , co-starring Jean Smart.
Then, after finishing his second run of Guys and Dolls in February 1994, he began to explore the possibilities of a change-of-pace. Enter Cybill. Called "a smart, bawdy adult comedy" by the show's creator, Chuck Lorre, Cybill had all the right genes. Lorre (coincidentally a former songwriter himself) had created the hit Grace Under Fire. The show's executive producers also included Moonlighting's Jay Daniel and the producers of The Cosby Show and Roseanne (Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach) as well as Shepherd. Though he had never done a sitcom before, Wopat seized the opportunity.
Tens of millions of viewers each week got to see yet another side of one of America's most popular, recognizable and multi-faceted performers.
