RIP David Soul: A Soul of Many Talents

      By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

When a celebrity passes, social media is filled with a multitude of reports and tributes to whomever has died. Today the literal legend David Soul passed away surrounded by family at the age of 80. Many people simply shrug it off which they should because they only know the characters the actor has played and not the real person. However you cannot help but feel their passing because they may have played a character in a series that has sat with you since childhood.

David Soul will for me always be synonymous with the role of Hutch in Starsky and Hutch and Ben Mears in Salem’s Lot. From 1975 to 1979 they were the hardest duo on television with their perfect on screen chemistry and distinctive car, the Ford Gran Torino with its red body and white stripe down either side. They kept the streets safe and we would watch it faithfully as a family every week. Soul was a great foil for Starsky played by Paul Michael Glaser. They had a comedic timing that made them mesmerising. For me as a kid without doing any research at all for this, I remember them facing a vampire, the two part Plague episode and the one with the Satanists that always freak me out. You cared about them because they were so believable. Starsky was prepared tp make a deal with the Devil in order to save Hutch from dying. There was a love between these two men that had rarely been seen up to that point on television. Hrd guys on the outside, there was a vulnerability there that made the audience root for them.

Starsky was the hard nosed street wise cop while Hutch was the more level headed sophisticated intellectual one but they complimented each other perfectly. When they faced the Satanists on a cabin weekeend, Hutch spent his time trying to persuade a whining nature hating Starsky into enjoying himself even when he is caught in a trap in his red long johns and a rattlesnake placed in their fridge to kill them both. They went undercover as hair stylists, cowboys, wealthy oil barons and mime artists amongst other things while they were aided by Huggy Bear and Chief played by Bernie Hamilton. Indeed Hutch’s iconic jump on to a car in the opening credits made me want to do it bt never did. It did leave Soul however with back injuries so maybe just as well.

As well as an actor Soul was a successful singer and songwriter with several hits under his belt which I remember vividly.

But what endeared David Soul into my psyhe was his turn as Ben Mears in the Tobe Hooper version of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. To this very day it remains my favourite of the King adaptations and has left scars that will never heal.

There has never been a vampire show as terrifying as Salem’s Lot and pitting Soul against the sly Straker played by the late and great James Mason was a stroke of genius. They make an onscreen pair that I can only ascribe to a cobra facing a mongoose. Soul delivers a performance so far from Hutch that it made audiences sit up and take notice. Some of the most terrifying memories I have are when Ben is sitting in the morgue waiting for the mother of Ralph and Danny Glick to revive as a vampire. Part of him is not sure it will happen but he makes himself a crucifix anyway. As the animated body begins coming back to life, Soul’s performance is that of abject terror. His hands are shaking so bad as the monster ries, he struggles to complete the prayer he is reciting.

It is a beautiful moment as its success relies totally on Soul’s terrified reaction. Mrs Glick rises with the sheet over her head calling for her boys just like any cncerned mother. But when the sheet falls away we see the blue skinned vampire that quickly changes from mother to monster when she sees Ben. He manages to press his cross to her head causing her to vanish.

In another performance fuelled scene, his telling his old teacher Jason Burke of what he saw in the Marsten house as a boy and of Hubie hanging by his neck that has haunted him to this day. His delivery is emotional and evocative which all helped add to the horror of this mini series. There is no super hero here just a man trying to save his home from a deadly creature. The irony is that Mears’s fears are not his imagination but something very real that will swallow even the most innocent of souls. Given the ending it is a great tale that reminds us that the battle against evil is never over.

Indeed, Soul took the villainous role in the Dirty Harry movie Magnum Force. Here he was the leader of a team of rogue cops, Officer John Davis, that carry out their own justice on those criminals that have beaten the legal system. Going toe to toe with Clint Eastwood showed that given the role, Soul could hold his own against the likes of greats like Eastwood.

Of course, I could not possibly finish wothout mentioning David Soul’s only Star Trek appearance in the episode The Apple. He played Makora, a native of Gamma Trianguli VI ruled over by the supercomputer Vaal. Vaal wants Kirk and co dead so Makora is shown how to smash their heads open with a club. This Garden of Eden is maintained by Vaal who keeps the natives from progressing. When Kirk destroys the computer Makor it seems will be one of th first to createe babiess with his partner Sayanna as Vaal outlawed normal life.

Everything ends and that is always sad but as long as fans are hooked by Starsky and Hutch or Salem’s Lot or listen to the songs of David Soul, he will never truly be gone. I off course, have only touched on those performances that stuck with me but there are so many others that will come to saddened fans all over the world tonight. Those who pass continue to exist in our hearts and minds as long as we remember them and tell their story. For me, it will always be Salem’s Lot and the scratching at the window.