The show was consistently among the top-rated television series in the late 1970s (at one point, ranking second only to Dallas, which immediately followed the show on th Friday night schedule).
The show is about two young cousins, Bo and Luke Duke, who live in rural Georgia and were on probation for moonshine running. Their female cousin Daisy Duke, and other family (such as patriarch Uncle Jesse), have various escapades as they evade the corrupt law officers Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. They drove a customized 1969 Dodge Charger nicknamed the General Lee, which became a symbol of the show.
Jefferson Davis Hogg, known as Boss Hogg, was the greedy, unethical commissioner of Hazzard County and the county's political boss. A stereotypical villainous glutton, Boss Hogg almost always wore an all-white suit with a white cowboy hat and regularly smoked cigars. His namesake is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America.
Boss Hogg was played by Sorrell Booke (January 4, 1930 – February 11, 1994, 64 years old), who performed frequently on radio, stage, television and film prior to his role in The Dukes of Hazzard.
A humble, jovial, intelligent man, there was more to Brooke than the silly characters he portrayed on television.
Booke was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of a local physician. As a child, he entertained patients in his father's waiting room and began acting on radio at nine and was known for his impersonations. He won a radio contest for mimicking the voice of Adolf Hitler and appeared regularly as an actor on local radio stations.
He attended Bennett High School and was valedictorian of the Class of 1946.
Booke enrolled in Columbia University at 16 and performed in Shakespearean plays in the drama club.
He graduated from Columbia at 19 in 1949, and received a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama. During that time he became fluent in five languages, including Japanese and Russian!
During his two years in the US Army during the Korean War, Lieutenant Sorrell Booke served as a counterintelligence officer where his linguistic skills were put to good use.
His actual efforts during the Korean War remain unknown, but generally counterintelligence efforts included debriefing returned and escaped American prisoners of war, observing terrain favorable to enemy and allied movements and keeping tabs on enemy intelligence efforts in Korea and Japan.
In 1960, after the military, Booke made his way to Hollywood, taking on several roles in film, including a roles in hit show MASH and Dukes of Hazard.
Booke remained humble about his Army activities to the point that after he passed away of colorectal cancer in Sherman Oaks, California, many were astonished tast he had served in the Army in such a capacity. He is interred at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California
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