Interview from “H!” (the Society Magazine)

Features : 4 pages, 3 large photos (one sitting on the lawn, blue T-shirt, one of him holding a cocktail by the huge pool + a portrait in the Hawaiian shirt).

+ smaller ones inside, of him with his BD cake (looking positively stunned – arms in the air, mouth wide open), dancing flamenco (next to a girl with the right gear and he has his arm in the air to match her movements), and 2 or 3 of him posing with other people (black T-shirt vs a black background)…

+ a tiny one of him singing in the Hawaiian shirt, eyes shut.

DAVID SOUL

Famous for his role as the fun loving cop Hutch in the 1970’s top TV series  H!  speaks to the blue eyed boy while on a recent visit to Marbella.

David Soul, the blue-eyed, blonde-haired 70s heartthrob, rekindled memories of days gone by for many when he attended the recent Innocence Ball in Marbella.  Known in his early days as the elusive ‘Masked Man’, David Soul (Solberg), the Chicago born star started his career in music and then hot footed his way into the acting business being most famously known for his role as Ken Hutchinson in the world renowned cop show S&H.  27 years on from his debut as Hutch as British TV, H! caught up with David during his recent visit to the coast to talk about his past, his inspirations and his future as well as his friendship with his then co-start PMG (aka Starsky).

David, what has brought you to Marbella and more precisely, the Innocence Ball?

There is a funeral in London this afternoon of a dear friend of mine, Lizzie McKenzie.  I’ve known her and her husband Michael since 1972.  He’s a fantastic jazz player and singer and we met on the London scene. They moved to Marbella a while ago. Lizzie called me and asked if I would do a charity performance at this year’s Innocence Ball.  At the time she was dying of cancer.  I should be at her funeral today in London but I know she would want me to be here rather than there. She was very happy that I was coming here to do something for the kids.

So, going back in time, were you born into a family of actors?

Well, yes in a way.  I was born into a family of preachers, but I guess it’s the same thing !

Did that influence you to go into the industry, the scene of your father on the stage?

My father was my main influence.  He was a preacher, but he was also a history and political science teacher, and since he was my hero, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a teacher.  I suppose, in a way, that’s what this industry is about.  As well as entertaining, it’s also about communicating with an audience.  You make them laugh, cry, you educate them and open them up to new experiences.

With your background, the last thing your parents expected was for you to become an actor or entertainer, were they disappointed?

 Not at all. I believe that a parent’s role is to provide a path or opportunity for their children.  The only thing my parents ever said to me was ‘do whatever you want to do, but do it well’. In the case of the Innocence Ball, these kids have to struggle to find their own paths because they come from abusive situations.  It’s not provided for them.  Luckily for me, I had good supportive parents.  It took them a while to adjust to the path I chose but they supported my decision.

When did you change your path from a teacher to entertainer?

 It wasn’t really a choice but a continuation.  I went to Mexico to study social and political history during that really charged period in Mexican history in the early sixties, that I found my path in a way. It was a time when students wanted to take control of their own country, not just in Mexico but also in Europe and the United States.  It was then that the people decided to teach me the songs of Mexico.  When I went back to the States to continue my studies I used music.  People thought me a bit strange at first; a blond haired, blue-eyed Norwegian who sang Mexican folk songs, but I used it to my advantage and got a job.  And so the music became my ticket to education. It was how I paid my way through school.  I sang in clubs such as The Ten O’Clock Scholar, the same club Bob Dylan came out of.

When did music stop being a way to pay for your education and start as a career?

At only 20 years old I got married.  I was still a kid myself but in those times, if you got someone pregnant, you had no choice but to get married.  So I left school and the only thing I could do was sing.  When my marriage failed I moved from Minnesota to New York at the age of 22 and I began to sing on stage.  But I covered my face with a mask and called myself ‘the covered man’.  I didn’t want to be known for anything other than my music and for months I was the talk of the town.  Behind the mask, I was everyone from Bob Dylan trying to make it straight to Mayor Lindsay trying to break into show business.

You are often perceived as the actor who turned singer, but listening to your story, it seems to be the other way round.

Very much so, music always came first.  I never set out to be an actor.

So when was your big break as an actor?

My first role on stage was in the play Sergeant Musgraves Dance by John Arden.  I didn’t know if it was the world I was looking for at the time but I loved it ! 

I went into acting because I had to make a good living.  I had a child now and I had to support him any way I could.  I then did an audition in New York shortly after I took the mask off on a scene from I am a camera and the guys who handled all the talent for Columbia Pictures automatically gave me a contract.  $250 a week and an airplane ticket to Los Angeles.  I also did a record at that time called ‘The Covered Man’, for MGM, done with the best blues band that was the hottest thing next to The Stones.  I wasn’t happy but I wasn’t unhappy.  I was just doing what I had to do to survive.

How did S&H come about?  Did you know Paul beforehand?

By then, I was fairly well known in the industry having been on TV with ‘Here Come the Brides’ for two years but work wasn’t exactly steady.  I guess it was luck that S&H came along. Paul & I were both struggling actors.  One night he would serve me in a restaurant, and the next night I would serve him.  It was what out of work actors did.

Did you enjoy working together?

Yeah, we had great fun; we tried as much as we could to say this was really about two men that just happened to be cops, two men that would lay down their lives for one another.  It was much more about friendship and loyalty. We were great friends off screen as well.  We fought like friends, we cared about each other like friends, we envied each other like friends, and we competed like friends.  We were very close.  We still are, he’s like my brother.  I thank the show for that.  I found a life long friend.  Boy did we fight but fair fights are healthy.  It’s the unfair manipulative fights, like those in marriages, I don’t agree with.  Don’t get me wrong, most will know I’m as guilty as any of manipulative fights but I help others now in realising how damaging they can be.

Do you still watch S&H?

Now and again.  I’m very proud of it and it was fantastic for its time.  I think that if you can create one thing in your time that will stay with people then it’s a success.  It’s still around today and I’m proud of that.  We all thought it would be a one off. Paul and myself had no ambition for the glamorous lifestyle but we enjoyed it all the same.

The success of S&H must have made you a very wealthy man?

No, firstly, I’ve had 4 marriages and 6 kids.  Divorce is not cheap.  I’ve had the Beverley Hills mansion but it doesn’t interest me anymore.  Secondly, I was bought out when the series ended so I get nothing from the show.  So when the programme finished, we each received a small percentage.  We didn’t have any idea that the show would do as well as it did and the offer came up to buy us out.  It wasn’t a lot, about $125,000.  It has sold for $25 million since then. But, like I said, we had no idea it would be that successful. In a way I do feel we were robbed, not out of naivety but greed.  Now I’m not broke but I’m not a wealthy man either.

If you knew then what you know now, would you have ever sold your soul as such?

I didn’t sell my soul; they took it.  I was too innocent.  And it wasn’t a nice thing to do but there is a big difference between selling your soul and having it taken. What makes me angry is that I know that it hasn’t just happened to us but it has happened to a lot of people.

What is happening in the life of DS now?

After S&H I went back into music because it was my life and I was driven by my love for music.  I also still do a lot of theatre. I love it; in fact, I’ve just finished a nationwide tour in the UK. Paul & I also want to make a film and bring S&H back 25 years later.  But because we don’t own the trademark, if we make something that remotely resembles S&H we can be sued.  Even if it’s not a cop film, if Paul & I are in it, the public can still see us as S&H.  But we are not giving up. We are going to try and find a way around it.

Whatever happens, S&H will go down in history as one of the television’s all time greats and DS was still part of a duo who decked the walls of many a teenage girl’s bedroom…

Yes. As the years go on I still get 30 something coming up to me with their three kids saying ‘I had you pinned up on my wall’. There is still the little girl inside every woman and it’s really lovely to see that twinkle still in their eyes. However, as much as it is nice, that’s not what I’m about, I’ve never seen myself that way.