David Soul's lasting fame rests on his role as one half of the 1970s television police partnership Starsky & Hutch with Paul Michael Glaser, yet his earliest professional steps were taken as a folk performer. Long before that weekly series brought international recognition to both actors, he opened concerts for Frank Zappa, Jay & the Americans, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, the Byrds, and the Lovin' Spoonful. His simultaneous discovery of folk music and the guitar occurred while living in Mexico in 1962. The family, headed by a minister father, had relocated south of the border for the elder Soul's post instructing future diplomats; rather than accept a Chicago White Sox baseball contract, the young man enrolled at the University of Mexico and the University of the Americas, where he pursued political science. Back in the United States, his first paid engagement came at Minneapolis' Ten O'clock Scholar, where the blond vocalist performed Mexican folk material.
Once Starsky & Hutch ended its run, David Richard Solberg, as he was born, found wider outlets for his songwriting and released four albums across the five years that began in 1977. One of the resulting hit singles was "Don't Give Up on Us, Baby." With a band behind him, he toured North America, South America, Japan, and Great Britain.
During the mid-1960s, while still striving for a foothold, Soul spent time in New York. He attracted notice by performing under the sole identity of the "Covered Man." The William Morris Agency signed him, and he appeared on talk and variety programs including The Merv Griffin Show, masked and playing guitar. Engagements fell away once he discarded the mask and appeared as himself; the element of mystery vanished. A Columbia Pictures scout who had seen one of those masked performances nonetheless arranged a Hollywood audition that produced a contract and, in 1968, a role in Here Come the Brides.
Further adversity arrived when his wife Patty Sherman brought abuse allegations in 1983, triggering both private upheaval and professional difficulties. He married four times and fathered six children. In addition to acting and singing, Soul worked as a producer and director. He died in London, England on January 4, 2024, at the age of 80.
