10 little-known facts about Luke Danes even die-hard 'Gilmore Girls' fans may have missed
Stephanie Ashe
- "Gilmore Girls" ran for seven seasons between 2000 and 2007, and it still has a dedicated fan base.
- Luke played a big role as one of Lorelai's love interests, but fans might not know he's a Scorpio.
The character was originally going to be very different.
Cocreator Amy Sherman-Palladino told Entertainment Weekly in 2016 that Luke Danes only exists because the network told her the show needed another man.
"Luke was originally a female character," she said. "[The network] came to me and said we need another guy, so I literally just took a character and changed the name, didn't even change any of the dialogue because I'm that lazy."
He's not a fan of hospitals.
When Richard Gilmore has a heart attack on season one, Luke rushes Lorelai to the hospital.
Throughout the ordeal, fans learn that Luke really hates hospitals.
Despite this fear, he always comes through for the people in his life. In fact, he shows up again at the hospital for Richard on season seven when Lorelai's husband Christopher is nowhere to be found.
He was a successful athlete in high school.
It's clear that Luke is a pretty athletic person. Throughout "Gilmore Girls," he coaches a girls' soccer team and plays on the Stars Hollow softball league.
Before that though, Luke mentions that he was a high-school track-and-field star specializing in hurdles. He even went to the state finals more than once.
His exact birthday is unclear, but Luke's a Scorpio.
On his first official date with Lorelai, Luke recalls the story of the first time he met her at the diner.
He says she badgered him for his birthday, tore out the Scorpio section of the newspaper horoscope, and wrote, "You will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee, and she'll go away."
Luke also reveals that he's kept that horoscope in his pocket ever since.
His exact birthday is never explicitly stated, but from that story, it seems he was born in October or November.
Luke was really into hockey as a kid.
On the season-five episode "Women of Questionable Morals," Luke builds an ice-skating rink for Lorelai to make up for the bad day she's having.
He also tells her that he was such a fan of hockey as a kid that his dad built him a rink.
Scott Patterson quit smoking in order to play Luke.
The show is known for its fast-paced dialogue, and some actors apparently had to adapt their lifestyles to keep up.
In 2020, Patterson told the New York Times that he and Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai, quit smoking after taking on the roles.
"She needed her wind," Patterson said. "And I needed my wind."
He hates his high-school nickname.
Luke went to high school with his sister, Liz, and her best friend, Carrie.
When Carrie comes to town, fans learn about his teenage nickname, "Butch," which no one but Carrie calls him anymore.
Luke can speak Spanish.
On season five, when Sookie is put on bed rest due to her pregnancy, Luke steps in to help run the kitchen at the Dragonfly Inn.
While giving instructions to the kitchen staff, he starts in English and repeats them in what appears to be pretty fluent Spanish.
There's supposedly only one person who can call him Lucas — but others do.
On season two, episode eight, "The Ins & Outs of Inns," Mia, the owner of the Independence Inn where Lorelai works, comes to town.
She greets Luke with a hug and calls him Lucas, to which he responds, "You're the only person in the world who can call me that."
But later, on season five, when Luke takes Lorelai to Sniffy's Tavern, the owner, Maisy, also calls him Lucas.
Maisy went to high school with Luke's mother, so he's known her even longer than Mia.
He was a big "Star Trek" fan.
A running joke of the show is that many of Rory and Lorelai's pop-culture references go over Luke's head. But he's definitely familiar with "Star Trek."
Apparently, he was a huge fan as a kid. When Mia is in town, she tells Lorelai and Rory that Luke wore a "Star Trek" shirt every day as a child.
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