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R.I.P. David Soul, ''Starsky and Hutch'' star and ''Don't Give Up on Us'' singer
The actor and singer topped the charts and became a pop culture phenomenon in the 70s. He was 80 years old.
David Soul, remembered for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the 1975 TV series Starsky and Hutch, has passed away at age 80.
Born David Richard Solberg, he left college after discovering his passion for music. He was a founding member of the Firehouse Theater in Minneapolis. He made his television debut in 1967 with an appearance on Flipper, and kept working steadily from then onward. He gained attention as "The Covered Man", a masked singer on The Merv Griffin Show.
After appearing on I Dream of Jeannie and Star Trek, Soul landed a main role as Joshua Bolt on Here Come The Brides. The show propelled him to pop stardom.
After the show ended, Soul continued to show up on TV with guest appearances in All in the Family, The F.B.I., Ironside and more.
In 1975, he was cast in the role that would become his most famous when he joined Paul Michael Glaser as a Southern California police detective in Starsky and Hutch.
"We didn’t have a clue it was going to be so successful. That only happened in the second year,” Soul said in 2020. “Paul and I basically ran the shoot — the streets were our playground, and we’d be driving around with people shouting, ‘It’s Starsky and Hutch!’"
In 1977, while Starsky and Hutch was still on the air, Soul released the single "Don't Give Up on Us" which reached #1 in both the US and UK. While his subsequent songs didn't reach the same level of success in the US, he was more popular in the UK and had five singles reach the top 20 in the UK charts.
In 1979, Soul starred in the Stephen King miniseries Salem's Lot, which went on to gain a cult following and left an impact on the vampire genre of movies.
After Starsky and Hutch, Soul went on to star in the short-lived Casablanca 1983 series, then anchored the one-season Western series The Yellow Rose.
In 2004, Soul, along with Glaser, made a cameo appearance in the Starsky & Hutch film starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. Hutch, played by Wilson, sang "Don't Give Up on Us" in the movie. The pair appear at the end and sell Stiller and Wilson the iconic Gran Torino after theirs gets destroyed.
Glaser wrote on Facebook, "Please join our entire Paul Michael Glaser community as we fondly remember all the gifts David Soul contributed throughout his 80 years. We wish David's family thoughts and prayers as they navigate through their loss of David. May David rest in everlasting peace."
30 Comments
R.I.P. Mr. Soul
Another great talent has left us. RIP, David Soul.
I own a DVD copy and rewatch it from time-to-time. I particularly enjoy James Mason's Straker character, and of course I love the look of Mr. Barlow.
I wish the article would have mentioned his family as in if he has a wife, children, grandchildren, etc.