David Soul, star of Starsky and Hutch, has died at the age of 80

Last Updated on January 12, 2024

BBC News has reported that David Soul, the famed star of the 70s police show, Starsky and Hutch, has died at the age of 80. Helen Snell, Soul’s wife revealed that the actor had passed on Thursday “after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family.” She added, “His smile, laughter and passion for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.” Soul is known best for co-starring with Paul Michael Glaser in Starsky and Hutch, where he portrayed Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson. The popular cop drama ran from 1975 to 1979. He would reprise his role in a tongue-in-cheek cameo in the 2004 Todd Phillips comedic film adaptation, Starsky & Hutch, alongside Paul Michael Glaser.

David Soul can also be remembered for his work in Here Come the Brides, Magnum Force and The Yellow Rose. Soul also had a recording career as a singer. Before finding success with acting, Soul was a professional folk singer and opened for famous musical acts, which include Frank Zappa, the Byrds, and the Lovin’ Spoonful. After he found success with Starsky and Hutch, Soul revisited his singing career with the hit single “Don’t Give Up On Us.” Soul would release four albums of soft rock ballads in the late 1970s. It was Soul’s early singing career that gave him his start in acting. He would sing the indigenous songs of Mexico with a mask on, and his gimmick would get him on as a client at the William Morris Agency. He would get many appearances on talk shows, including the popular Merv Griffin Show.

Eventually, his gimmick wore out, and he turned to acting. When he found success on Starsky and Hutch, his TV fans gave him new life as a recording artist as he also hit with the single “Silver Lady.” In a review of his first concert in 1977 after Starsky and Hutch, a New York Times reviewer described “camera‐wielding teenage girls charging the stage” with “the flicker of hundreds of exploding flashcubes and a continual squealing.” He would only release one more album since he had a stint in jail and rehab, which was 1997’s self-released Leave a Light On. In the 2013 movie Filth, starring James McAvoy (based on the Irvine Welsh novel), Soul cameo-ed as himself in a fantasy sequence sincing “Silver Lady.”

The actor and singer was married five times, with Snell being his most current spouse.