In the 70s, the boom in the American series brought to our screens a couple of police detectives who are already part of the cathodic history, Star
In the 70s, the boom in the American series brought to our screens a couple of police detectives who are already part of the cathodic history, Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Hutch (David Soul). But beware, in the plot the other fundamental character was the car they were driving.
The lives of the two protagonists changed forever after the success of its four seasons and 93 episodes. David Soul was the handsome blond man who took all the street girls, but he couldn’t digest being a star and took refuge in alcohol.
With the drink, he became so violent that he hit his third wife, Patti, who was seven months pregnant. He went to prison and was forced to go to therapy. Aware of this problem, in recent decades he has visited prisons to talk about this addiction and domestic violence. He had to win back the love of his six children that he had in four marriages.
After squandering his fortune in drinking and filming unprofitable documentaries, the bank kept his mansion in the exclusive Bel Air neighborhood (Los Angeles) and sold his percentage of the series’ rights for around 90,000 euros. Today, he would be a millionaire thanks to the reissue of the series worldwide. For this reason, he lives humbly on the outskirts of London with his fifth wife.
The latest images of the actor have nothing to do with the sexy idol of the past. At 76 years old, he has gained a lot of weight, walks with difficulty and has continuous problems with lung obstruction due to his addiction to tobacco and the cancer that was removed. His artistic career is practically non-existent.
The life of his beloved friend and companion Paul Michael, 77, has not been a smooth journey either. After the series was canceled because he was not comfortable, he married Elizabeth Meyer in 1980, a professor and director of exhibitions at the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles. A year later, while giving birth to her daughter Ariel, the mother suffered a serious hemorrhage for which she needed a blood transfusion. Four years later, the girl became ill without doctors discovering the reasons.
At the time, a disease called AIDS was ravaging, mainly, within the gay community. Actor Rock Hudson passed away in 1985, becoming the first celebrity to die of the condition. Doctors decided to test the girl for HIV (Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus), which tested positive, as did the couple’s mother and second child , Jake, born in 1984. Fortunately, Paul had not been infected.
The scientific community tirelessly investigated any type of medication or even a vaccine that could save lives. At that time the AZT that was supplied to Ariel was commercialized, but in August 1988 he died. And six years later, Elizabeth would also die. The actor had fallen into a spiral of psychological destruction by losing his two loved ones. What little strength he had left went to his HIV-positive son Jack, who is now living a normal life, and to the non-profit Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which is responsible for investigating childhood AIDS.
Following that nightmare, Glaser remarried producer Tracy Barone in 1996, with whom he had another daughter, Zoe, who is currently 23 years old. The couple divorced after a decade of marriage. Unlike his colleague, Paul continues to work as a film director and as a guest actor in hit series like The Mentalist, Criminal Minds or Grace & Frankie.
