Paul Michael Glaser

Paul Manfred Glaser was born March 25, 1943, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the youngest child and only son of Samuel Glaser, an MIT graduate and well-known Boston architect, and his wife Dorothy. He grew up in Brookline and Newton. He was raised Jewish, and although Dorothy was an agnostic, and the family did not observe Shabbat, the family did celebrate the religion's major holidays, including Glaser's own bar mitzvah. Samuel designed a shul in Rhode Island.

Glaser attended the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School until 1961 before transferring to the Cambridge School of Weston, completing high school. He attended Tulane University, where he was roommates with film director Bruce Paltrow, majoring in theater and English with a minor in architecture and graduated in 1966. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. He earned a master's degree in fine arts from Boston University in acting and directing in 1967. Glaser made his movie debut as Perchick in the 1971 movie version of the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

He found fame playing Detective Dave Starsky opposite David Soul in the television series Starsky & Hutch, of which he directed several episodes. It ran for four seasons (1975–1979) on ABC.

After the series, Glaser continued to act on television and in movies, and directed the 1987 film The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as the 1992 movie The Cutting Edge. He also directed episodes of several TV series, including Miami Vice, Robbery Homicide Division and Judging Amy. Glaser returned to the big screen in 2003 in Something's Gotta Give, as Diane Keaton's ex-husband, and with a brief cameo in the 2004 film version of Starsky & Hutch, in which Starsky was played by Ben Stiller. He directed the children's movie Kazaam featuring Shaquille O'Neal. He guest featured in "The Scarlet Letter", the October 1, 2009, episode of CBS's The Mentalist.

Between 2013 and 2019, Glaser appeared as Alan in several episodes of the television series Ray Donovan. In an interview published in April 2018, Glaser, having not acted since that role was asked if he had retired from acting, and replied, "People ask me, 'What's your favorite: acting, directing or writing?' My answer: What life occurs. It's what happens. You never know when something will cross your path. I try to stay open to everything. I'm doing a guest appearance on Grace and Frankie right now. As long as it's a good group of people, I'm open to anything. That's the thing I enjoy most about filmmaking or acting: experience." That same month, Glaser had his first American solo exhibition for his paintings and digital illustrations at Cosmo Lofts in Hollywood. The show was titled "Act III", because his foray as an artist marked the third stage of his career, following acting in front of the camera, and writing/directing behind it.