• Actor Gene Hackman, 93, unrecognizable in his first photo of the last 20 years
  • Actor Dick Van, 97, involved in an accident in Malibu after losing control of his Lexus

It seems like yesterday, but the unforgettable Starsky of the Starsky and Hutch series (1975-1979) has just turned 80. This character has marked him for life, but in his career we must also highlight the film Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and The Butterflies are Free (1972).

Raised in the Jewish faith, as a child he knew he wanted to be an actor, he enrolled in English, theater and architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans. His roommate was future director Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneath's father. Shortly thereafter he earned a master's degree in acting and directing from Boston University.

As an anecdotal fact it can be said that during the filming of the detective series they used seven red Ford Grand Torino cars with a large white stripe on both sides and, subsequently, the company marketed only a thousand units. At the beginning of the series he met Elizabeth Glaser while both were driving through Hollywood, smiled at each other, the actor asked her to stop and invited her to eat Chinese food. Three months later they went to live together. In 1980 they married.

David Soul (l) and Paul Michael Glaser, Starsky and Hutch protas.GTRES

The following year her daughter Ariel was born, in whose birth the mother needed a blood transfusion that seriously harmed her daughter, since when she fell ill in 1986 she was diagnosed with AIDS. They also had a son, Jake (38), who contracted HIV in the womb. Unfortunately her firstborn died at the age of 7 and the parents created the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation.

Foundation whose mission is to provide funds for AIDS research in children. Tragedy struck Paul again, as his wife died in 1994. He tried to overcome that hard blow by putting himself in charge of the Foundation.

In 1996 he remarried producer Tracy Barone, with whom he had a daughter named Zoe (25). The couple divorced in 2007.

Paul has also dared to direct. For example, he was in charge of Arnold Schwarzenegger and María Conchita Alonso to shoot Persecuted (1987). In her spare time she loves to sing, play guitar, swim and run. Since retiring in 2019 the only thing he is interested in are his grandchildren, fishing and painting.

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