An important actor in Spider-Man history is no longer with us. Toronto actor Paul Soles, who voiced the wall-crawler in the animated Spider-Man series from the '60s, died at the age of 90 last Wednesday.
Soles sister, Ruth-Ellen Soles, confirmed the Canadian-born actor died of natural causes at his home last week. As the voice actor of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the '60s animated series, Soles holds the honor of being the first person to portray the iconic Marvel hero onscreen.
During an interview with The Canadian Press in 2018, Soles admitted that he was unsure of how to portray Spider-Man because he didn't feel like a superhero himself while growing up. However, it appears that was exactly what Spider-Man creator Stan Lee was looking for when casting the wall-crawler, hoping to show a more human side to the character compared to most comic book heroes of the time. The animated Spider-Man series was a joint production between Canada and the United States, with Soles leading a voice cast that consisted mostly of Canadian actors. In addition to voicing the titular hero, Soles would also provide the voice for some secondary characters, including the classic Spider-Man foe known as the Vulture.
However, Spider-Man was not Soles' only iconic role. He also provided the voice for Hermey the Elf in the classic Rankin/Bass Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Soles also appeared on the CBC-TV sketch comedy series Charlie Had One But He Didn't Like It, So He Gave It To Us and served as the first host of the public broadcaster's game show This Is The Law. He also appeared in multiple stage productions in both the U.S. and Canada, continuing to act as recently as the late 2010s. In fact, Soles was awarded the 2017 Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor in a Digital Series for his role in the comedy web series My 90-Year-Old Roommate.
Of course, the wall crawler will likely always be his most famous role, and perhaps justifiably so considering it was a character he was able to relate to. In the aforementioned conversation with The Canadian Press, Soles noted that growing up Jewish in Toronto during the '30s and beyond helped him identify with perpetual outsider Peter Parker.
Since Soles' time as the wall-crawler, Spider-Man has gone on to be portrayed by multiple actors both in animation and live-action films. However, an entire generation may always consider Soles' incarnation of the web-slinger to be their first introduction to the character, and therefore the best version.
Spider-Man (1967) is available to stream on Disney Plus.
Source: CP24