David Soul was captured at an event in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 1983. Soul, who rose to stardom as blond half of crime-fighting duo “Starsky and Hutch” in a beloved 1970s television series, has passed away at age 80.
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David Soul was captured at an event in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 1983. Soul, who rose to stardom as blond half of crime-fighting duo “Starsky and Hutch” in a beloved 1970s television series, has passed away at age 80.
Wally Fong/AP
LONDON — Actor-singer David Soul, a 1970s heartthrob who co-starred as the blond half of the crime-fighting duo “Starsky & Hutch” and led the music charts with the ballad “Don’t Give Up on Us,” has passed away at the age of 80.
His wife, Helen Snell, shared on Friday that “David Soul – beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother – passed away yesterday after a brave battle for life in the loving company of family.”
“He imparted many exceptional gifts in the world as actor, singer, storyteller, creative artist and dear friend,” Snell said in a statement. “His grin, laughter and zest for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.”
Born David Solberg, Soul was a Chicago native whose acting career dated back to the 1960s, when he joined the avant-garde Firehouse Theater in Minnesota. He continued to appear on stage and screen well into the 20th century, but he was best known for his work in the 1970s.
Soul portrayed detective Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson alongside dark-haired Paul Michael Glaser as detective David Starsky in “Starsky & Hutch, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979 and grew so popular it sparked a line of children’s toys.
David Soul (from left), Paul Michael Glaser and Antonio Fargas, stars of the 1970s “Starsky and Hutch” television series, arrive at the British premiere of the new movie of the same name in London on March 11, 2004.
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David Soul (from left), Paul Michael Glaser and Antonio Fargas, stars of the 1970s “Starsky and Hutch” television series, arrive at the British premiere of the new movie of the same name in London on March 11, 2004.
John D McHugh/AP
He also achieved success as a singer, starting in 1976 with “Don’t Give Up on Us” and pursuing with such hits as “Going in With My Eyes Open” and “Silver Lady.”
Soul first gained national fame in the 1960s appearing on “The Merv Griffin Show” as “The Covered Man,” a singer disguised in a stocking cap who shouted out lyrics such as “That is why I hide my face, because a man has to be free.”
His other TV credits included early appearances on “Star Trek,” “All in the Family” and “I Dream of Jeannie,” the miniseries “Salem’s Lot” and a short-lived version of the film classic “Casablanca,” in which Soul assumed Humphrey Bogart’s role as nightclub owner Rock Blaine.
Soul’s movies included “Magnum Force,” “The Hanoi Hilton” and a cameo with Glaser in the 2004 big-screen remake of “Starsky & Hutch,” starring Ben Stiller as Starsky and Owen Wilson as Hutch.
By the 1990s, Soul had relocated to Britain, where he played several stage roles. In 2001, he won a libel case against a journalist who referred to “The Dead Monkey,” a play that Soul was in, as the worst production he had ever seen – without having seen it. He also portrayed the titular talk-show host in “Jerry Springer – The Opera” in London’s West End.
