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New Orleans · Monday, October 6, 2008 · M/Cloudy · Temp. 84°
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PAUL MICHAEL GLASER Long before he was telling Arnold Schwarzenegger what to do--even before he was taking the red and white Torino out for a weekly car chase on "Starsky and Hutch"--Paul Michael Glaser (A&S '65) was giving the Tulane community a chance to view the talents that would lead him to success as both actor and director. He was drawn to Tulane because of its renowned theater program. "We had a great department--it was a spirited group," he says. "I felt the people there were very supportive and I have nothing but good memories of the whole experience." In the old programs from theatrical productions during his Tulane years, from 1961 until graduation in 1965, the name "Paul Glaser" can be found on almost each one. This was no small feat, considering that he attended Tulane when the theater doctoral program was at its zenith. He regularly beat out graduate students for the plum roles. For Glaser, what marked his college days was the passion with which his professors and fellow students approached their subjects. "It was a place that allowed me to do an awful lot of work," he says, citing both Monroe Lippman and Irving Rivner as influences. "It wasn't just what they taught; it was more how they taught and their passion for what they taught. Finding people who are passionate about what they do is not as easy as one might think." People generally are unable to communicate their passions, he says. "In the theater and the arts, passion is the fuel that makes it all go, so to have people like that as my mentors--people who were passionate about what they did and were willing to be there for you--was a valuable thing." Glaser also was surrounded by interesting fellow students, not all of them in theater. For example, one of his former roommates who also ended up with a successful career as a director and producer was art major Bruce Paltrow (A&S '65). The two remain friends. "I remember I'd come back from rehearsals late at night and he'd come back from the art building. He'd show me his work, and I'd talk about my work. I don't know if I had any influence on him in his career choices..." Glaser hesitates, then laughs. "Maybe I had a negative influence on him." Like many theater majors, Glaser began his career as a purist--it was Broadway or bust. "I had dreams of being a great theater actor. I thought, 'I'll never go Hollywood.' Well, maybe I'd do a film, but I'd never live there." Never say never. Glaser tells this story from his home in Santa Monica--he has called California home for almost 30 years. Blame it on a young rogue detective named Dave Starsky. After graduating from Tulane and receiving a master's degree from Boston University, Glaser landed the role that vaulted him from unknown to celebrity when he was cast with fellow newcomer David Soul in the hit series "Starsky and Hutch." "I never intended to do a series--I thought it would be a television movie and that was it," he says. "But it became a series and I became this thing called a 'celebrity,' and that was a journey unto itself." "Starsky and Hutch" ran for four seasons and led to another five years of acting before Glaser began looking for more creative control in the form of directing. He first directed a made-for-TV move, "Amazons," and has since gone on to direct a number of films including "Band of the Hand" (1986), "The Running Man" (1987), "The Cutting Edge" (1992), "The Air Up There" (1993) and "Kazaam" (1996). Currently, Glaser is taking a more active role in writing as well as directing. Behind it all, however, are deceptively simple goals: "Learn as much as I can, be at peace as much as I can, and teach as much as I can. "You only go around once," he says. "You have to aim high."
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Following
His Dreams 
