David Soul est le nom de scène de David Richard Solberg, né le 28 août 1943 à Chicago, acteur, chanteur compositeur et interprète américain. Il est essentiellement connu pour avoir incarné le policier Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson dans la célèbre série télévisée Starsky & Hutch de 1975 à 1979
David Solberg est le fils d'un pasteur luthérien. Son père, le révérend Richard Solberg, est un haut représentant de l'organisation caritative luthérienne Lutheran World Relief pendant la reconstruction de l'Allemagne après la deuxième guerre mondiale. Son frère est également pasteur et milite dans des mouvements sociaux.
Soul se fait remarquer pour la première fois en jouant un mystérieux homme masqué dans une émission de télévision, le The Merv Griffin Show en 1967. Il y chante, le visage caché derrière un masque de skieur, et explique : Je suis David Soul, je veux qu'on se souvienne de moi pour ma musique
Soul incarne ensuite le personnage sérieux de Joshua Bolt dans l'émission Here Come the Brides, puis l'associé de l'avocat Arthur Hill dans "Owen Marshal: Counselor At Law". Mais c'est avec son rôle dans la série Starsky and Hutch qu'il se fait connaître sur la scène internationale.
Il joue également dans des séries telles que I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970), McMillan and Wife (1971-1977) et se fait remarquer face à Clint Eastwood dans Magnum Force en 1973. Il apparaît comme guest star dans les séries La Troisième Guerre mondiale, Cannon, Gunsmoke, Les Rues de San Francisco, Star Trek et dans le téléfilm tiré du roman de Stephen King, Salem Lot en 1978.
Après une carrière honorable de chanteur, où il produit des succès tels que Don't Give Up on Us et Silver Lady , Soul connaît un passage difficile dans les années quatre-vingt, où il mène un long combat contre l'alcoolisme.
Dans les années quatre-vingt dix il s'installe à Londres et commence une nouvelle carrière au théâtre. Il s'engage dans l'action politique en soutenant le candidat indépendant Martin Bell, élu député de la circonscription deTatton, dans le Cheshire. Il obtient la nationalité britannique en 2004, mais garde sa nationalité américaine et de nombreuses attaches avec son pays d'origine. De ses mariages successifs (notamment avec Karen Carlson, Patty Sherman et Julia Nickson-Soul) il a six enfants.
En juillet 2004, il reprend le rôle de Jerry Springer dans Jerry Springer - The Opera au Cambridge Theatre de Londres, puis joue le personnage de Andrew Pennington dans le film tiré du roman d'Agatha Christie, Mort sur le Nil. En 2007, sous la direction de John Doyle, il incarne Mack dans une nouvelle mise en scène du spectacle musical de Jerry Herman, Mack and Mabel au Criterion Theatre.
* 1971 : Johnny Got His Gun de Dalton Trumbo
* 1979 : Les Vampires de Salem de Tobe Hooper
* 1988 : Rendez-vous avec la mort (Appointment with Death) de Michael Winner
* 2004 : Starsky et Hutch ou il fait une petite apparition clin d'œil à la fin avec Paul Michael Glaser (les vendeurs de la nouvelle Torino.)
* David Soul - 1976 Private Stock Records
* Playing To An Audience Of One - 1977 Private Stock Records
* Band Of Friends - 1980 Energy Records
* Best Days Of My Life - 1982 Energy Records
* The Best Of David Soul 1989
* Leave A Light On - 1997
* On lui doit également un certain nombre de singles entre autre The Covered Man et I Will Warm Your Heart
Born as David Richard Solberg on 28 August 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Soul's father, Dr. Richard Solberg, served as a Religious Affairs Advisor to the U.S. High Commission in Berlin and as Senior Representative for the Lutheran World Federation, a refugee relief agency actively involved in the post WW II reconstruction in Germany. Soul spent his formative years traveling throughout the world until the family returned to America where Soul began playing the guitar and writing his own songs. Enrolling at the University of Minnesota, he also found a job in a nightclub singing folk songs and rock music.
In 1962 Soul was offered a professional baseball contract for the Chicago White Sox but turned it down.
In 1967 he joined a North Dakota musical revue, was spotted by a talent executive and signed to a studio contract. He studied acting with the Irene Daly School of The Actors Company and with Uta Hagen in New York, and the Columbia Workshop in Hollywood.
His first appearance on television was a brief role in a two-part episode of Flipper in 1967. This was followed by roles in I Dream Of Jeannie (1967) and Star Trek (1967). On The Merv Griffin Show between 1967 and 1968, he had regular exposure as the mystery singer known as The Covered Man. This brought him to the attention of Screen Gems executive, Renee Valente who subsequently kept him busy in anything and everything. In 1968 he did a couple of Television specials, The Secret Sharer and A Christmas Story before landing a lead role in the comedy adventure series, Here Come The Brides. Set in boomtown Seattle during the 1870s, it was the story of three brothers, Jason (Robert Brown), Jeremy (Bobby Sherman) and Joshua (Soul) and their plan to bring one-hundred prospective brides from New Bedford, Massachusetts back to Bridal Veil Mountain to satisfy the men of the logging camp who were in near revolt over the lack of women in Seattle. The show lasted for two seasons until the end of 1970.
Continuing on television with guest roles in episodes of The Young Rebels (1970); Love, American Style (1971) Dan August (1971) and All In The Family (1971), Soul managed to put in an appearance on the big screen in Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (1971). This anti-war film came out of the Cannes Film Festival with three awards and told the story of soldier, Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms) who lost his arms, legs, and most of his face during the First World War. The subject matter is handled in a way that's not so much anti-war as pro-life. Also in the cast were Kathy Fields, Jason Robards, Diane Varsi and Donald Sutherland.
1972 brought more television roles in The FBI; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Ironside; Gunsmoke; Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law; Intertect; The Streets Of San Francisco and Movin' On.
The horror-mystery anthology series, Circle Of Fear provided a good starring role for Soul as James Barlow in an episode titled The Phantom Of Herald Square (1973). Soul's rendition of the song, Seem To Miss So Much is used to great effect as the underlying soundtrack to this dark tale of a man selling his soul in order to retain his youth.
A return to the big screen for Magnum Force (1973) had Soul co-starring alongside Clint Eastwood in the powerful sequel to the 1971 thriller, Dirty Harry. The film boasted a fine supporting cast including Hal Holbrook, Felton Perry and Mitchell Ryan. In the film, Soul played motorcycle cop, John Davis, a role that got him noticed by producer Joseph T. Naar when he was casting for Starsky And Hutch . T wo co-stars from this movie also went on to gain popularity in television shows; Tim Matheson for The Quest and Robert Urich for Vega$.
Episodes of Cannon (1973/1974), The Rookies ( 1974); McMillan and Wife (1974); Medical Center (1974); Manhunter (1974) and a regular role as Ted Warrick in Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law kept Soul's face on television before his next movie role as a young prizefighter, down on his luck who teams up with a cynical ex-vaudevillian tap dancer in Dogpound Shuffle. Written, produced and directed by Jeffrey Bloom this warm, enchanting tale was funny and wistful, with an excellent character performance by Ron Moody as the hoofer. Shot on a twenty-eight day schedule in Vancouver, it was Bloom's first outing as Writer/Director. The film also featured Pamela McMyler. Rounding off 1974 was a featured role alongside Hollywood veteran Glenn Ford in The Disappearance Of Flight 412. A made-for-television movie about a UFO incident and the subsequent investigation to discover the truth.
Despite the busy schedule that Starsky And Hutch presented between 1975 and 1979, Soul still managed a lead role as one-time pimp turned big city cop, Lyle York in Little Ladies Of The Night (1977). A story about a teenage runaway (Linda Purl) drawn into the hard world of prostitution after being shunned by her parents.
With the success of the Starsky And Hutch series he was able to pursue his ambition as singer/songwriter and consistently topped the US and UK pop charts during the seventies with Don't Give Up On Us; Going In With My Eyes Open; Silver Lady; Let's Have A Quiet Night In and It Sure Brings Out The Love In Your Eyes. His self-titled debut album David SouI was released in 1976; followed by Playing To An Audience Of One; A Band Of Friends; The Best Days Of My Life and Leave A Light On. He toured extensively and successfully with his band in the USA, Britain, Japan and South America.
Venturing into romantic-comedy, The Stick-Up (1977) reunited Soul with Jeffrey Bloom and Pamela McMyler, both of whom he ' d collaborated with in Dogpound Shuffle. Shot entirely on location in Devon, England, Soul played Duke Turnbeau, an American adventurer abroad during the spring of King George's Silver Jubilee Year, 1935.
When Starsky And Hutch finished its run in 1979 after four successful seasons, Soul had no problem finding other projects that interested him. He appeared in Stephen King's Salem's Lot (1979) and Homeward Bound. He produced, directed and starred in Swan Song (1980) and was Emmy Nominated for Rage (1980), the harrowing drama of a convicted rapist who undergoes intensive therapy. 1981 saw a role in two miniseries. Firstly, alongside Rock Hudson in World War III and as Caleb Staunton in The Manions Of America.
In 1982 he co-hosted 6.55 Special, stepped into Humphrey Bogart's shoes as Rick Blaine for the short-lived television series Casablanca before landing a starring role as Roy Champion in the Western series, The Yellow Rose. The Yellow Rose ran for seventeen episodes and Soul moved on to roles in more mini-series: A Parade Of Witnesses (1983); The Key To Rebecca (1984); The Fifth Missile (1986); The Secret Of The Sahara ( 1987). He directed episodes of Miami Vice (1984); Hill Street Blues; Hunter (1985) and China Beach (1988). He guested on Crime Story (1987) and Partners in Crime (1984).
Television movies such as Through Naked Eyes (1983); The Fifth Missile (1986); China Hand (1987); In The Line Of Duty: The FBI Murders (1988); Down And Under (1988); Prime Target (1989) and another television series, Unsub (1989) kept him busy during the rest of the eighties. Before the decade ended he'd financed, produced and directed the award winning television documentary, The Fighting Ministers (1986) for PBS Broadcasting and had also appeared on the big screen in The Hanoi Hilton (1987); Appointment with Death (1988) and In the Cold of the Night (1989).
Throughout the nineties, Soul was appearing in more and more television movies: So Proudly We Hail (1990); Circus of the Stars (1990); The Bride In Black (1990); A Cry In The Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann (1991); Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing (1992) and Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive (1992). He made more guest appearances on television shows such as High Tide (1994); Murder, She Wrote; The Young Riders (1990); The Hitchhiker (1991); Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Jake and the Fatman. On the big screen he did The Tides of War (1990) and Pentathlon (1994) before leaving America for New Zealand, Australia, France and England to tour as the Narrator in Willy Russell's Blood Brothers and star on television in The Judge was a Woman (1993); Crosswinds (1994); Terror In The Mall (1997); Les Filles du Lido (1994); Vents contraires (1995) and Sandra, Princess Rebelle (1995).
Soul has acted in theatre since the mid sixties. He was an original member of The Firehouse Theater Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When the company moved to New York in 1965, Soul moved with it. In addition to a selection of one-act plays called Viet Rock, he played the lead in productions such as Brecht's Baal and John Arden's Sergeant Musgrave's Dance. Recently, British theatergoers have seen him as he's toured in Catch Me If You Can with Patrick Mower, The Aspern Papers with Hannah Gordon, David Mamet's Speed The Plow with Michael Brandon and Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential. In 1998 he co-produced and starred in Nick Darke's bizarre black comedy, The Dead Monkey (alongside Antonio Fargas).
At the Edinburgh Festival in 2000, Soul directed and starred in Sam Shepard' s sexually charged and savagely funny Fool For Love. Soul's production incorporated pre-shot and live on-stage video, visual effects, graphics, 3-D imaging, time-lapse footage and digital sound to heighten the visceral experience of the presentation. It was one of the first real examples of how streaming media can be effectively applied to live theatre. 2002 saw a successful UK tour of Ira Levin's Deathtrap with Soul starring alongside a very strong cast that included Gerald Kyd and Susan Penhaligon.
On British television he's appeared in drag on The Harry Hill Show (2000); as a contestant on Never Mind the Buzzcocks (2000) and as a locum doctor in an episode of Holby City (2001).