David Soul died on the 4th January. I was really really sad. I loved David Soul back in the day as I'm sure a few of you did as well.
My childhood divides neatly into the 1960's and the 70's. In the latter half of the 70's a few TV shows defined the decade and Starsky and Hutch was one of them. The two handsome and super-cool Californian detectives burst onto our screens in the UK on Saturday April 23rd, 1976 [Kojak aired in the UK two years earlier in 1974].
Yep, what a year! first Starsky and Hutch and then that long hot Indian summer. For a while it seemed like Califiornia itself here in drab old Britain!
David Soul became an overnight star in 1976. In the same year he had a number 1 single too, Don't Give Up On Us. This guy could sing as well as jump across cars! I remember mates and me singing Don't Put Your Foot on the Baby for some daft reason at the time. Soul was a talent and with his buddy Mike Glazer they were suddenly pinned up high on bedroom walls allover the country, if not the world!
I think I was too old for pop star posters in '76, turning 17 that Christmas [I had a huge black and white poster of Karloff's Frankenstein over my bed!] but I really appreciated the pazzaz and sunshine of Starsky and Hutch: the street talk, Huggy Bear, the loud action, the cool homes, the rough precincts and above all the leather jacket, cardigan coat and the polo necks and yes, those massive cars [remember the die-casts!] constantly turning on a sixpence and screeching after bad guys. Like Kojak before it, Starsky and Hutch was pure seductive Stateside fun and a real bright moment in our swirling and sometimes drab Seventies adolescence.
In 1979 David Soul starred in what is for me his best work, Salem's Lot. A two-part TV mini-series, often shown as a single movie, it was a milestone in vampire telly.
Tobe Hooper, who directed the seminal Texas Chainsaw Massacre, made Salem's Lot and did something special. Its still incredibly popular today. Soul plays Ben Mears, a successful author, who comes home to Salem's Lot, where fell deeds are taking place in this small American town. Yep, its a Stephen King story.
Who can forget the many great moments in the series! When Soul aka Ben first sees the creepy looming Marsten House again, the Glick Brothers rapping on a bedroom window, the Petrie boy's Dad cross and confused about his son's love of Aurora monsters [that rang a bell!], Straker - the loathsome familiar played so well by James Mason and finally, the hideous Mr. Barlow himself, the hissing Nosferatuesque vampire at the bloody heart of Salem's Lot's malaise.
It was and is a triumph of TV horror and along with Starsky and Hutch before it, a true jewel in David's long and illustrious career.
He shall be sadly missed.
What are your memories of David readers?
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David Soul, 1943-2024. Rest in Peace.
