Television Icon Dead at 80

David Soul, best known for his role on the 1970s hit detective series Starsky & Hutch, has died. He was 80.

Soul, who played Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson, passed away after a “valiant battle for life in the loving company of family,” his wife, Helen Snell, announced in a statement. No exact cause of death was given.

Soul also sang the smash hit single Don’t Give Up On Us, which rose to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in April 1977.

“David Soul – beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother – died yesterday after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family,” his wife said in a statement. “He shared many extraordinary gifts in the world as actor, singer, storyteller, creative artist and dear friend.

“His smile, laughter and passion for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.”

The Guardian reports:

Born on 28 August 1943 in Chicago, Illinois, Soul grew up in a religious family of Norwegian descent. His father, Richard Solberg, was a Lutheran minister and a history professor. “The atmosphere was strict when I was growing up but tempered by love,” Soul recalled to the Guardian in 2012. “We were a very, very religious family – we weren’t fundamentalists, just very worshipful and gave credit to God for almost everything.”

The family lived a peripatetic lifestyle to accommodate Solberg’s teaching, moving from Berlin to Mexico City and eventually settling in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Soul graduated from high school. While studying for a year at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, he was inspired by students who taught him to play guitar and shifted his focus to music, eventually performing in clubs in Minneapolis.

He began performing on stage in the mid-60s, and was a founding member of the Firehouse Theater in Minneapolis. Soul gained attention for his stage work while touring the country with the group, particularly as the “Covered Man” on the Merv Griffin show in 1966 and 1967, where he sang while wearing a mask. Shortly thereafter came his first television appearance on Flipper. He signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1967 and began a series of guest appearances, including on Star Trek, before landing the role on Here Come the Brides.

Soul became a British citizen in 2004. He was married five times, his last being to Snell, who he met in 2002.They were married in 2010.