When I was Starsky, women were all over me. Now I'm happy alone: The startling transformation of Seventies TV hunk Paul Michael Glaser

By Lina Das for MailOnline

Published: 20:10 EST, 22 August 2013 | Updated: 10:00 EST, 23 August 2013

As The square-jawed, smouldering Dave Starsky of Seventies cop series Starsky & Hutch, Paul Michael Glaser was known for tooling around the streets of California with his buddy Hutch in their distinctive red-and-white Ford Torino, looking infinitely cool in spite of a penchant for belted cardies. 

So it’s something of an anomaly to see a heavily-bearded Paul dragging around an old milk cart in the less glamorous confines of early 20th-century Tsarist Russia.

He is in a rehearsal studio in West London for a stage production of Fiddler On The Roof — one of the most successful musicals of all time with such memorable songs as If I Were A Rich Man and Tradition.

Paul Michael Glaser has swapped the streets of California and his bell bottoms for an old milk cart in early 20th-century Tsarist Russia as he prepares to star in Fiddler on the Roof

The milk cart and beard are de rigueur for Paul’s lead role as Tevye, the poor, yet big-hearted head of an Orthodox Jewish family who is desperate to marry off his five daughters to wealthier suitors and thus relieve his financial burden, but who instead listens to their entreaties to marry purely for love.

The 1971 film version which won three Oscars and turned Israeli actor Topol into a worldwide star for his portrayal of Tevye, interestingly, also featured a 28-year-old Paul Michael Glaser in his first major screen role as the young, idealistic teacher Perchik.

‘I can’t remember the last time I saw the film,’ he says, ‘but it’s such a kick doing this now.

The story really speaks to the human condition. I am not a practising Jew, though I was bar mitzvah-ed and I’m proud of my heritage. But I always had a tremendous thirst for spiritual awareness and guidance and I know I eventually found it elsewhere.’

Within a short while of meeting Paul, it’s apparent just how deep his thirst for spiritual awareness is.

He’s far more at home talking about philosophical matters than the intricacies of a Starsky & Hutch plotline.

He admits he was ‘uncomfortable’ with the level of fame the TV series brought him, but the reasons for his spirituality go far deeper than a mere aversion to celebrity. 

In 1985, Paul and his wife Elizabeth, worried about their four-year-old daughter Ariel’s persistent and severe stomach aches, took her to see the doctor. She tested positive for HIV.

It transpired Elizabeth had contracted the virus when, after losing a great deal of blood after her daughter’s birth, she had been given a transfusion of seven pints — blood which at that time was not being screened for AIDS.

Elizabeth, unaware she was carrying the virus, began breastfeeding Ariel, and in doing so passed on the virus to her daughter.

Three years later, still unaware that Elizabeth was HIV positive, the Glasers had a son, Jake, who was also infected with HIV in the womb. Paul was the only one to test negative.

Paul Michael Glaser (right) said he was uncomfortable with the fame TV series Starsky & Hutch brought him and co-star David Soul (left)

The actor's fame became irrelevant in relation to his family tragedies

In 1988, aged seven years and one week,  Ariel died and in 1994, Elizabeth also passed away, though not before campaigning vigorously for more research into the HIV virus.

Jake, thankfully, survived although is on medication to combat the effects of the virus.

Seeing one’s family decimated in such a way may have destroyed lesser men through bitterness and grief, yet Paul, now 70, displays an incredible amount of forbearance.

‘I began with a tremendous amount of rage and anger, mainly directed at myself for not being able to do anything about all of this,’ he says. ‘And  guilt, too.

‘But going though the experience of losing my wife and daughter meant I was probably more open to learning about helplessness, fear and where we are in this life. 

‘I’m a very different person now than I would have been had none of this happened, so I consider myself very fortunate that I was able to learn those things and end up in a place I’d never have imagined.’

Shortly before she died, Elizabeth Glaser wrote a moving book entitled In the Absence Of Angels where she noted that after the diagnosis, which the Glasers kept private for a long time, ‘we still appeared, to so many, the picture-perfect family’.

‘In private, after the diagnosis, I said: “Why me? Why me? Why me?”,’ he admits, ‘but the only answer to that question is: “Well, why not me?”.

‘In my darkest moments [after the deaths of Ariel and Elizabeth] I probably thought about ending it,’ he admits, ‘but I never had the...’ he stops. ‘It never made sense. How do you do something like that?

So it never entered my mind. But over time I learned that we’re all helpless in the face of our mortality.

‘We attempt all these illusions of empowerment: “I built this... I own this... I can buy this...”, but the nasty truth exists that we have no power whatsoever over our own mortality, or anyone else’s for that matter, and that’s our only real fear.

Michael Glaser pictured with co-star David Soul and Princess Margaret. He said Princess Diana reached out to his wife Elizabeth when she was unwell and said she had inspired her charity work

‘I still get enraged or angry or hurt or saddened or depressed but it takes me a much shorter time now to deal with it. So I consider myself extremely fortunate because I have a far greater degree of peace than I ever could have imagined.’ 

In the mid-Eighties, a climate of fear about AIDS prevailed. Elizabeth wrote movingly about how some schools wouldn’t admit their children and about how even certain school friends weren’t allowed to come round to the Glaser house to play. 

Undaunted, she started the Pediatric AIDS Foundation to help further research into the virus and even lobbied Congress for more funds.

Princess Diana, on hearing about the Glasers’ plight, contacted Elizabeth and later admitted that Elizabeth’s courage in the face of adversity had helped spark her own work for AIDS charities in Britain.

‘Princess Diana was very kind to Elizabeth,’ says Paul, ‘and she visited us at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts one summer. We really enjoyed our time with her — I thought she was lovely.’

Paul’s son Jake, 28, is a consultant for his mother’s Foundation. ‘He’s doing great,’ says Paul. ‘He’s a remarkable boy and he’s in good health. He had a mutant gene that I had, which is what kept me from catching the virus from my wife.

‘It held him in good stead up to a year ago when he had a come-to-Jesus moment where the doctor said: “You either take the medicines now or you’re going to die.”

‘So he just stepped up to it and said: “OK.” It focused him amazingly. He’s had a lot on his plate and I’m very proud of him.’

Two years after Elizabeth’s death, Paul married producer Tracy Barone. It ended after 11 years, but they had a daughter, Zoe, now 15.

He once admitted his ‘biggest fear is ending up alone’, but now says: ‘I don’t fear that any more because I’ve come to terms a lot with aloneness over the years and I’m much more comfortable than I’ve ever been with it.

Paul Glaser pictured with his wife Elizabeth who died in 1994 and daughter Ariel, who tragically died when she was just seven

‘Saying that, we’d all like to be able to find that connection,  that relationship, wouldn’t we? I’m no different.’

Certainly at 70 and despite the Tevye-inspired beard, Paul looks far younger than his years. ‘Isn’t that bizarre?’ he says, slightly chuffed. He still retains the twinkly heart-throb charm of his Starsky & Hutch years.

Did women throw themselves at him constantly? ‘I guess they did,’ he says. ‘But you know what that’s all about — fame.

We all crave a real, intimate relationship and then there’s the candy and that was all candy. Me, I prefer fruit — it’s better for you. Although,’ he laughs, ‘candy can occasionally be quite good!

‘But I don’t think I was prepared for that level of fame, and when I got it, I didn’t like it at all. But that’s part of the package and now I’m OK with it’

After Starsky & Hutch, Paul directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action hit The Running Man, and several episodes of Miami Vice.

He even had a cameo role in the 2004 comedy film version of  Starsky & Hutch alongside his old Hutch cohort David Soul, with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson playing the duo.

Paul and David Soul, now a naturalised British citizen, remain friends. ‘We spoke the other night, actually,’ says Paul. ‘He didn’t give me any tips on singing and dancing for this show, bless him, but that’s OK. He’s a good egg and there’s still a very strong bond between us.’

As Paul heads back to rehearsals, he admits he still occasionally talks to Elizabeth and Ariel. ‘I say something like: “I love you. How are you?”’ and that despite their having been taken away far too soon, they are never truly far away.

‘It’s just an understanding that they are there inside me. I think we’re always together.’

The Fiddler On The Roof UK tour starts on September 5. For venues, visit fiddlerontheroof.co.uk