For a generation of fans, he embodied American cool. As one half of the 1970s TV cop duo Starsky & Hutch, David Soul captivated women with his blonde, Nordic looks and appealed to men equally by speeding through the streets of the fictional Bay City, California, in a red Ford Gran Torino.
But while his death at the age of 80 ten days ago brought back nostalgic memories for millions of people, it reopened painful wounds for those closest to him.
Soul was married five times and had six children. He was, by his own admission, a “headstrong” father whose brilliant Hollywood career failed because of alcohol intoxication.
It culminated in a horrific attack on his heavily pregnant third wife, which left her with broken fingers – and destroyed his reputation.
When The Mail on Sunday reached out to this woman, Patti Carnel Sherman, last week, she simply said: “The old adage 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all' has stuck with me.” We had three wonderful, handsome, intelligent and talented sons together and I thank God for that.”
The death of David Soul, an actor who captivated television audiences for a generation, has reopened painful wounds for many of those closest to him
David Soul was, by his own admission, “headstrong.” Soul was ordered into anger management after he attacked his pregnant third wife, Patti Carnel Sherman
David Soul was the epitome of American cool for a generation, as one half of the legendary TV duo Starsky and Hutch.
One of those sons, Andrew Solberg, 38 (Solberg was Soul's real last name), is less reserved when it comes to discussing the father, whose selfish pursuit of women, alcohol and fame caused emotional wounds that still hurt.
“We had a complicated relationship and at times I hated him and resented him for abandoning me and my brothers,” Andrew said in his first ever interview last night. “It was difficult for me to understand and get to know him. My father had his demons.
“I have similar demons and can’t say I would have dealt with them any better if I were him.”
“He had a very large ego and needed to feed it – which led to him consuming copious amounts of alcohol.” He struggled with alcohol and he struggled with women.
“As a child, I asked myself, 'Why doesn't he want to get to know me?' That's hard for a child. I was someone with a famous father who was more interested in having fun, chasing my dreams, and chasing alcohol and women.
“It's hard to deal with it as a child. But I understand it now. He was lost.'
He struggled with alcohol and he struggled with women
Andrew, an aspiring actor who also runs a hair salon in the quaint Idaho town of Coeur d'Alene, blames his father for his own descent into alcoholism (he's sober now). Touchingly, he says the couple reconciled and found peace during a telephone conversation just days before Soul died in London.
Andrew had just finished filming his first low-budget film. “I wanted his approval all the time,” he says, his voice shaking. “I told him about my acting and for the first time he told me the words I've always wanted to hear.” He said, “I'm proud of you.”'
Andrew blames his father's turbulent childhood for the demons that drove him to self-destruction at the height of his fame.
The son of a Lutheran priest and a mother who dreamed of becoming a singer but gave that up to raise five children, Soul felt “suffocated.” While his father preached in Mexico, he learned to play the guitar and developed a passion for music.
When the family returned to their hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Soul became pregnant by his high school sweetheart, Mim Russeth. Soul said: “I knew there was no choice but to marry her. “I couldn't tell my parents because their strict moral code meant they would have brought the wrath of God upon me.” The marriage ended after just 18 months ago when Soul found Mim in bed with his best friend. Soul suffered a nervous breakdown and was locked up in a psychiatric ward for his own protection.
He fled to New York, where he became part of pop artist Andy Warhol's infamous “factory” of “bad young things” and suggested he was sexually abused as a “little toy boy.” Soul started singing in clubs and then moved to Hollywood to appear in a variety show – which led to a career as a supporting actor.
A role in the Dirty Harry sequel “Magnum Force” starring Clint Eastwood inspired producer Aaron Spelling (who created “Dynasty” and “Melrose Place”) to cast him as Sergeant Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson alongside Paul Michael Glaser, aka Sergeant Dave Starsky, in “Starsky & Hutch,” which ran from 1975 to 1979.
The show epitomized Californian glamor with its laid-back humor, red and white striped Ford Gran Torino and of course its beautiful leading actors. “Dad was good-looking, but he was never interested in looks,” says his son Andrew. “He was always embarrassed about being a sex symbol.” It tormented him. He didn't feel worthy.'
Soul parlayed his fame and pin-up status into a successful music career, achieving two UK No. 1 hits, with “Don't Give Up On Us” in 1976 and “Silver Lady” a year later.
Once, when he arrived at Heathrow at the height of his fame, he was greeted by 5,000 screaming women.
David Soul and his fourth wife, Julia Nickson. Their marriage quickly failed as David Soul struggled with alcoholism
David Soul had six children and his son Andrew Solberg recently described their problems. “Sometimes I hated him and resented him for abandoning me and my brothers,” he said last night
The series Starsky and Hutch, in which he co-starred with Paul Michael Glaser, was so successful that it was later adapted into a feature film and a video game
In an interview, he teased that he got “drunk” by sharing two bottles of gin with Princess Margaret.
He said, “Paul [Glaser] and I took her to lunch and we downed a few bottles of gin. She told us that the Queen Mother loved Starsky & Hutch and called us “nice boys.”
A second marriage to actress Karen Carlson ended in 1977, reportedly due to his increasing alcoholism. This marriage produced a son, Jon, now in his fifties.
Soul was at the height of his fame when he married Patti Carnel Sherman in 1980, and was expected to follow other Seventies TV stars like Michael Douglas to Hollywood fame.
However, Patti was seven months pregnant with her second son in 1982 when Soul attacked her at her Bel Air mansion.
Soul had returned home drunk from the set of a miniseries called Casablanca, in which he played the role of Humphrey Bogart.
Patti later told People magazine: “He started calling me names in vile, venomous language. “He was violent with his tongue, so I knew he would be physically violent.
“Every time there was violence against David, there was beer or wine on his breath. “If I even smell it now, it strikes fear in me.”
Soul hit Patti so hard that he broke bones in her hand and fingers. She had two black eyes. He sat on her seven-month pregnant stomach for 20 minutes. “He cut my lip and it started bleeding.” “I was scared to death,” Patti said.
She called the Bel Air Local Safety Patrol, who called the police.
Soul was taken to jail but released 90 minutes later after posting $500 bail, a small amount for a man who reportedly earned more than $1 million a year.
He avoided prison by agreeing to anger management therapy and spent years making amends by speaking at meetings for victims of domestic violence.
He claimed “terrible, terrible remorse,” but his dreams of a brilliant Hollywood film career were in tatters.
The marriage failed and produced another son – Andrew – in 1985, but the couple eventually separated when Andrew was two years old.
Andrew told the MoS: “His work was more important to him than his family. “I spoke to my mother and she forgave him.
“I always blamed her for leaving him. My father never had the attitude to really be a father.
“He liked the image of what a father might look like, but he didn't like the work that came with it.” Andrew remembers being shown photos of Hollywood parties, including one of himself bounced on actor Laurence Olivier's knee.
A second marriage to actress Karen Carlson ended in 1977, reportedly due to his increasing alcoholism. Alcohol would define his personal problems
Soul had battled lung cancer and lung disease. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for fifty years and had a history of alcohol use
Over the course of his career, David Soul has had guest appearances on series such as Star Trek
“I loved being with my dad,” Andrew says. “As a kid, we did the coolest things together, like slow-motion fights.” He taught us how to get punched in the gut in slow motion and with all the facial expressions. He was fun to be with.'
When Andrew was five, Patti took her three young sons to Idaho to give them a stable upbringing that she thought was impossible in Hollywood, especially as the children of a notorious celebrity.
By this point, stories about Soul's womanizing were all over the tabloids.
Andrew says, “It wasn't a very stable place for my brothers and I, so my mother drove us out to Idaho when I was five.”
“In those early years, Dad was busy and not with us much, but when he was, he helped us use our imaginations.” “He built tree forts with us and took us off-roading in the desert and skiing and snowboarding in the mountains.”
Because Soul worked overseas, he only visited these three sons occasionally, and Andrew says those times became increasingly rare.
“I saw him less and less,” he says. 'It was very difficult.'
Andrew says he has “no idea” his father was a 1970s pin-up star, as he grew up under the name Solberg, not Soul.
However, once in a supermarket he spotted a picture of his father on the cover of a magazine, described as a “dead father”. “The article was about me and my brothers,” he says.
In 1987, Soul married for the fourth time, Julia Nickson, who had been a starlet in Sylvester Stallone's Rambo: First Blood Part II.
Last week she told The Mail on Sunday she had fond memories of Soul but agreed he was a poor father.
She remembers wonderful trips around the world together – visits to the Galapagos Islands, camping in Jordan and horseback riding in Morocco.
“David had a great quality that made a girl's heart beat more than a little faster,” she says.
“But as time goes on, family responsibilities become greater, life needs to be more regulated – and I feel like David wasn't ready to be part of that equation.”
“He always had to wander around. And the wandering becomes tiring for each spouse.”
The couple divorced in 1993.
Soul met his fifth wife, British PR woman Helen Snell, in the mid-1990s and moved to London. They married in 2010 and he became a British citizen and Arsenal fan.
He appeared in West End shows and in the British television series Holby City and Little Britain, but never achieved the career – or happiness – that he expected.
In 2004, he landed a cameo role in a film adaptation of Starsky & Hutch, but apparently hated the remake, which starred Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.
He signed away his share of Starsky & Hutch's licensing rights, which might have been worth millions, for what he called a “ridiculous” $100,000 to pay for one of his divorces.
His son Andrew followed his father down the path to drug addiction and alcoholism and was in and out of prison and treatment programs until he met his wife Erika six years ago.
His greatest heartbreak is that he was unable to fly to the UK to be alongside his siblings and attend his dying father – Soul had been battling lung cancer and lung disease.
After their last conversation, a phone call in which Soul finally admitted to being “proud” of his son, the actor's condition worsened and he was hospitalized.
Andrew said: “He was in and out of consciousness, more or less in a coma. My brother Tim, who was with Dad, held the phone to his ear while I told him everything I was feeling.
“The emotions just poured out, even though I wasn't sure he could hear me.” He squeezed my brother's hand as I spoke, so I hope he heard it.
“I know he loved me – even if he didn't know how to show it. I hope he's finally at peace.'