Let me get one thing straight: I did not plan on dying. I mean, sure, I knew it would happen eventually, smoking 60 day for decades helped with that, but I assumed I’d at least be consulted first. One minute I’m contemplating whether oat milk is a scam (it is), the next I’m checking my own pulse and finding there isn't one.
Now, don’t get me wrong, death isn’t all bad. The peace and quiet is nice, no more autograph seekers asking, “Weren’t you in that cop show? and 'which one was you, Starsky or Hutch?” while I’m just trying to enjoy a coffee in Hampstead Park.
I may have been born American but i died a Brit, obtaining citizenship in 2004 because i loved Britain apart from the weather which is lousy. I actually sort of knew the woman who runs this blog, our seats at Highbury were quite close by and we would nod at each other occasionally, both Arsenal fans see, i even frequently appeared in Arsenal matchday programmes and club magazines over the years.
Obviously i am most well known for the Cop show but when i started having hit songs i know some people wondered why this guy who was all about driving fast cars and flinging himself at bad guys could suddenly think he was a pop star. They didn’t realize that I was a singer and musician long before I made any mark as an actor.
In England I carried on my acting career and would pop up in several shows but mainly did theatre even after the Internet announced i had died in 2009.
'Wait, you’re still alive?' people would say followed by the request for a selfie and one woman in an elevator said I looked like that actor from the old TV show and when i said 'That’s because I am him', she replied, 'Nope, he’s dead.'
Whether it was for my singing or my acting, I was described as a legend which is sweet but i did suffer with back pain from decades of bell-bottoms and legends don’t spend forty years being introduced as 'David Soul, you know, the guy from Starsky & Hutch'.
Still, I suppose I can’t complain. I had a good run. I chased bad guys in a red Ford Gran Torino. I made women swoon with my sideburns. I topped charts. I made cameos on Hawaii Five-0 and Casualty and there is even a remastered Starsky and Hutch on streaming platforms in high definition although nobody really needed to see that close-up of my 1976 haircut in 4K.
