David Soul

Announcing the death of David Soul, his wife Helen Snell said he died “after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of his family." He was eighty years old.

The actor was best known for his role as Detective Kenneth 'Hutch' in the TV series Starsky and Hutch, where he starred alongside Paul Michael Glaser from 1975 to 1979. The series went on to influence British TV programmes such as The Professionals.

The record labels soon realised that Soul was a bankable asset, and a successful recording career began, resulting in two number-one hits in the UK singles chart: Silver Lady and Don’t Give Up on Us in 1976 and 1977, respectively. His second album, Playing to an Audience of One, made the top ten in the UK album charts.

By 1978, as the hits began to dry up, Soul returned to acting, moving to Britain in the mid-1990s and beginning a new career on the West End stage, namely as the narrator in Blood Brothers.

In 2002, he appeared at The Alhambra in Bradford in Ira Levin’s classic thriller, Deathtrap. Always the true professional, he gladly posed for photographs and signed autographs while doing some late-night shopping at the large Tesco store in Bradford after one of his Alhambra appearances. I will never forget the look on the faces of the check-out staff and other shoppers in the store who could not believe that a Hollywood star was in their midst.

Soul was married five times, including to actresses Sherman, Mirriam Solberg, Karen Carlson, and Julia Nickson, and had six children.

He met Helen Snell while performing in Deathtrap and described her as his "soulmate."