Lucas "Luke" Danes is a fictional character on the television series Gilmore Girls, played by Scott Patterson.

In the series, Luke is the owner of his eponymous diner, housed in what was formerly his father's hardware store. The sign "Williams Hardware" still hangs in front of the diner. He is a gruff, burly man with a constant five o'clock shadow that never evolves into a full grown beard. One of a few eateries in the town of Stars Hollow (others include Al's Pancake World and Weston's Bakery), it is frequented by the Gilmores, and is Lorelai Gilmore's main source of morning coffee. Luke dotes on Rory and she in turn likes him, in early seasons, though she has little to do with him past season 3.

Luke was raised in Stars Hollow. He attended Stars Hollow High, and excelled in its track team.

Luke's father ran Williams Hardware, and had a reputation about town as a stubborn and terse man, much like Luke. Despite this, Luke held his father in high regard, as evidenced on the show in a number of ways:

• When Luke repainted the diner, he made certain not to paint over an old hardware order that his father had scribbled on the wall behind the counter.
• His father had been working on a boat when he died, and Luke kept the boat in a neighbor's garage for 15 years.
• November 30th is known throughout town as "Luke's Dark Day", during which Luke disappears. He reveals to Lorelai that he disappears because this was the day of his father's death, and he likes to be alone on this day.

His Uncle Louie also lived in Stars Hollow but later retired to Orlando, Florida. Upon Louie's death, Luke arranged the funeral in Stars Hollow because his father wanted Louie buried next to him. Louie was considered quite unpleasant, and none of his relatives but Luke attended the funeral. (Season 2, Ep. 17 "Dead Uncles and Vegetables")

Luke's sister Liz appears on occasion in Stars Hollow, and recently (fifth season) moved there. Luke generally interacts with her by trying to fix her problems, as she is characterized as being stilted both emotionally and intellectually, sometimes even lacking the most common of sense. The predominant problem is Jess Mariano, Liz's rebel-without-a-cause son, who arrives at Luke's doorstep after being sent away by his mother. In season 6 we see that Jess has gotten his act together and written a book. However, Liz recently married a man named T.J. who, despite being dense, really cares for Liz. They have just had a baby girl, Doula.

Luke had a long-term relationship with an "Elle Macpherson–pretty" professional photographer named Rachel (played by Lisa Ann Hadley), and was later "accidentally" married to (and later divorced from) girlfriend Nicole Leahy, a corporate lawyer played by Tricia O'Kelley. After four seasons of on-and-off flirtation, Luke and Lorelai got together, in Season 4 Episode 22 "Raincoats and Recipes." Lorelai's parents, specifically her mother Emily, vehemently disapproved of the relationship, as she felt that Luke, as a blue-collar working man, was not good enough for her blue-blooded daughter Lorelai, and tried to use Rory's father Christopher to break them up. After breaking up in Season 5 Ep. 14 "Say Something" and getting back together at the very end of Season 5 Ep. 16 "So. . . Good Talk," Lorelai proposed to him at the extreme end of Season 5, Ep. 22 "A House is Not a Home", and he accepted at the very beginning of the next episode.

Luke also had a relationship with Anna Nardini (Sherilyn Fenn) that, unbeknownst to Luke, resulted in the birth of his daughter, April (Vanessa Marano). Luke found out about April's existence after she approached him under the pretense of a school science fair, snagged a hair from his head, snapped his photo, and ran DNA tests that proved that Luke was indeed her father(Season 6 "The Prodigal Daughter Returns"). She made this information public as part of her science fair project, for which she won second place, and Lorelai finds out 2 months later (Season 6 "Just Like Gwen and Gavin"). When Luke goes to Anna to confront her over the revelation, Anna tells Luke that she did not tell him about his daughter because at the time that they were dating Luke displayed great intolerance and impatience towards children, as evidenced by his refusal to go to movies before 10:00 PM because of noisy kids in the theatre and his habit of asking to move to other tables when out at dinner because he didn't want to be near families with children. Because of that, Anna was afraid that Luke would become angry and hurtful if he knew he was about to become a father, so she chose to keep the information secret from him. After thinking about it a great deal, Luke decided to try to reach out and establish a relationship with his "whiz kid" daughter, with modest success; her friends and classmates liken Luke to Hagrid.

Because of this, Luke unintentionally alienated Lorelai, as he felt that his relationship with April and his relationship with Lorelai should be separate things, at least for a while. When Lorelai eventually found out, they postponed their wedding. When Luke asked Lorelai to help him with April's birthday party, her mother, Anna, became angry with him for having his fiancee help him without running it past her first. Ironically, April commented that Lorelai and Anna were very much alike and would probably like each other. Lorelai then tried to sort things out with Anna, but without much success. As time passed, Lorelai grew impatient with Luke's attention being drawn to April and resentful of the fact that she was being forced to wait again for the man she had fallen in love with, and started to avoid him. After giving Luke an ultimatum - elope with her now or never - to which he said "I can't jump like this", Lorelai stormed away from him, apparently ending their relationship. She then went to Christopher for comfort, spending the night with him. Lorelai appears to be heartbroken the next morning when Chris's young daughter notices her and says "I don't like to sleep with my nightgown on when I'm sick either."

Two days later, Luke showed up at Lorelai's house - after Kirk crashed Taylor's vintage Thunderbird through his diner - with his truck all packed up and made a speech to Lorelai about how much she means to him and saying he was ready to elope, only to have her tell him that she'd gone and slept with Christopher. Without saying anything, Luke got into his car, slammed the door and drove away. Following this, Luke went to Chris's apartment, knocked on the door and punched Chris in the face as soon as the door opened.

After contending with Kirk's outdoor "diner", and taking some of his anger out on Lorelai herself when he crossed paths with her in the street, Luke went to work on repairing his diner with TJ, and ended up telling TJ that he and Lorelai had broken up. TJ then brought Luke home for dinner so that he and Liz could cheer him up and discuss what had gone wrong with his relationship. Liz and TJ both told Luke that he and Lorelai were never in synch, which is why it didn't work and launched into a lengthy explanation of metaphors, such as planes and wormholes; Luke put it more simply that he and Lorelai simply weren't right for each other, and later he told Lorelai this right to her face in a grocery store, though whether or not Luke himself really believed it was questionable. The breakup from Lorelai did not appear to have negatively impacted Luke's relationship with April. Things took a bad turn, however, when Anna announced that she was moving back to New Mexico to be with her ailing mother and that she intended to take April with her. Anna proved to be stubborn and unwilling to make any compromises for Luke being able to see April; this angered Luke and he told Anna to her face that he would fight her for custody. After meeting with his lawyer, Luke got into a fist fight with Christopher Hayden in the streets of Stars Hollow at night, which neither one appeared to win. In an attempt to win joint custody of April, Luke asked Lorelai to write him a character reference. Though at first she struggled with what to say, Lorelai eventually wrote a letter describing all that Luke meant to her and Rory. While the letter proved helpful to Luke, who won joint custody, the letter also played a role in the breakup of Lorelai and Christopher. Christopher found the letter, and accused Lorelai of still being in love with Luke. Following Lorelai's breakup, she and Luke made steps towards friendship. Lorelai returned to the diner, Luke attempted to help her pick out a car, and both apologized for the role each had in their breakup. Lorelai, while very drunk, ended up singing "I Will Always Love You" to Luke at a karaoke night. Luke, while buying a graduation gift for Rory from his sister Liz, also purchased a necklace that would "look great with Lorelai's eyes." Luke claimed that it was a back-up gift for Rory. He almost gave it to Lorelai, but hesitated when he heard her say the karaoke serenade "meant nothing." In the final episode, Luke decided to throw a surprise going away party for Rory and the whole town pitches in to help. When he heard that it was going to rain, Luke stayed up the entire night sewing tarps together to create a giant tent. When Sookie told Lorelai that the whole party was Luke's idea, detailing all the work he put into it. Afterward, Lorelai sought Luke out. When Lorelai thanked Luke, he said it was no big deal, and then confessed that he just wanted to see her happy. Luke and Lorelai kissed, and it was implied that they rekindled their romance as Lorelai is seen flirting with Luke and wearing the necklace the next morning in the diner.