About this Artist

TOM WOPAT introduces a new dimension of his talent on his Angel Records debut, The Still of the Night, an album which is going to surprise a lot of people. The star of TV and Broadway effortlessly reinvents a set of beautiful standards in a smooth, intimate, and sexy style reminiscent of the crooners of the '40s and '50s. The surprise is that he waited until now to reveal a talent for singing some of the best-loved songs of the last century in a romantic style that belies his husky voice and ruggedly handsome appearance. "We found things in my voice that we knew were there, but had never really been highlighted before," explains Wopat. "This has been a real process of discovery of what's there and what sounds kind of cool."

Wopat first came to public attention in the late '70s as the freewheeling Luke Duke on the comedy-adventure TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard. But his background as a classically trained vocalist was a far cry from the car crashes and corny humor that gave the series a seven-year run and afforded him the opportunity to make his debut as a director on five episodes.

Born on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin, Wopat began singing and dancing in school musicals when he was 12 years old. He studied music at the University of Wisconsin and began his acting career in productions of West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, and South Pacific. Within weeks of his arrival in New York in 1977, he appeared off-Broadway in the hit musical A Bistro Car on the CNR, then signed for the title role of The Robber Bridegroom at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. Back in New York, he made his Broadway debut in Cy Coleman's I Love My Wife and followed that by starring as Curly in an off-Broadway production of Oklahoma.

Wopat resumed his theatrical career in 1986 with Carousel at the Kennedy Center. Returning to New York in the early '90s, he starred in the Tony Award-winning musicals City of Angels and Guys and Dolls. In February, 1999, he created the role of Frank Butler to Bernadette Peters' Annie in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun, a role which earned him a Tony nomination. Wopat has also appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in programs featuring the music of Broadway.