David Soul Biography

The son of a Chicago minister, actor David Soul actually launched his career as a folk singer. Born David Richard Solbert on August 28, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, David moved to Mexico during his youth, when his father took a lengthy assignment as diplomatic advisor for the U.S. State Department. The experience (and the Mexican environment) engendered in young Solberg a permanent love of indigenous folk music. For the remainder of his youth, the whole world was Soul's backyard as his father was transferred from post to post during the 1950s and early 1960s. The blossoming performer could never quite shake either his inbred wanderlust (he attended Augustana College in South Dakota, the University of the Americas in New Mexico, and the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis) or his musical inclinations. After impulsively deciding to become a stage performer, and studying with the legendary Uta Hagen in New York, Soul definitively opted to embark upon a singing career. From 1966 to 1967, the performer turned up as the hooded "mystery singer" on the syndicated television talkfest The Merv Griffin Show. At about the same time, Soul also landed gigs opening for musical acts including Frank Zappa, The Lovin' Spoonful and The Byrds. The singer's decision, not long after, to finally remove his "mask" on television and reveal himself to the public backfired; it took away the novelty, and made it eminently more difficult for Soul to book concerts. Taking this as a cue, the actor returned to television, and was cast as Joshua Bolt on the 1968 TV adventure series Here Come the Brides, co-starring with another promising vocalist, Bobby Sherman. While Sherman became an instant teen idol, Soul would not truly hit it big until 1976, when he was cast as urban cop David Starsky and teamed with Paul Michael Glaser on the cop series Starsky and Hutch (1975-79). During the series and immediately following its cancellation, Soul attempted to trade off of his tube success by revitalizing his recording career, but did so with intermittent success; his syrupy ballad "Don't Give Up on Us" (parodied by Owen Wilson years later during a scene in the 2004 big-screen movie Starsky & Hutch) peaked at #1 in 1977 and became an FM and then AM radio staple for decades, but his albums charted much lower and did little to further his musical success.The actor went on to star in the TV weeklies Casablanca (1983, in the Bogart role!), The Yellow Rose (1983-84), Unsub (1989), and the telemovie adventure Pentathalon (1994). He also made a cameo alongside Glaser at the conclusion of the aforementioned Starsky & Hutch movie. Married several times, Soul's ex-wives include Karen Carlson, Lynn Marta, and Julia Nickson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

• 1. Ben Mears: But you remember that even then, that house had a reputation for being a haunted house?
  2. Jason Burke: Every town has one.
  3. Ben Mears: I went up there once, on a dare. You know how kids are. I was sweating scared. I sneaked around. Got into the house.
  4. Jason Burke: What did you see?
  5. Ben Mears: Ghosts, everything; every sound, every shadow. I'm not sure what I saw. I think I saw Hubie Marsten hanging by his neck. His face green, his eyes puffed shut his hands livid. It was ghastly. And then he opened his eyes and he looked at me. He looked at me, and I took off and I ran. I ran as fast as I could. I've never forgotten that.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Ben Mears: I think that an evil house attracts evil men.
  2. Jason Burke: But if a house attracts evil men.
  3. Ben Mears: Why did it attract me?
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Ben Mears: Jason, do you believe a thing can be inherently evil?
  2. Jason Burke: I've seen trees that look like tortured spirits.
  3. Ben Mears: A house. The Marsten house for instance. Can it be evil in its stone foundations, in its wooden beams? In the glass of its windows? In the plaster of its ceilings? Evil.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Ben Mears: They've found us again. Another has found us.
  2. Mark Petrie: We have to go further.
  3. Ben Mears: Not yet.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Ben Mears: Bless this cross in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost; no atheists with false thoughts. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me. He maketh me to lie down in; beside still water. He maketh me to lie down. He maketh me. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of the righteousness for His name's sake. Bill! Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. Bill! I will fear no evil. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Richard Straker: You have some expertise.
  2. Ben Mears: No, not really. I just happen to know something about silver. My aunt had some Georgian and we had to sell it when she died.
  3. Richard Straker: What an unfortunate way to acquire knowledge.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Jason Burke: What do you remember, Mike?
  2. Mike: Singing.
  3. Jason Burke: Singing?
  4. Mike: Sweetest singing I ever heard, and a feeling like drowning, and eyes...eyes.
  5. Jason Burke: Whose eyes?
  6. Mike: Bright, scary.
  7. Ben Mears: Whose?
  8. Mike: Don't remember.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)

• 1. Jason Burke: Marsten House still the center of the story?
  2. Ben Mears: Yep.
  3. Jason Burke: How about the Glick boys? You connect them with the house?
  4. Ben Mears: Everything in Salem's Lot is connected to that house. You can see it from every part of the town. It's like a beacon throwing off an energy force.
  From Salem's Lot. Submitted by Creep F (12 months ago)