Canadian recalls starring in original ‘Spider-Man’
TORONTO — When Toronto actor Paul Soles snagged the lead role in Stan Lee’s original “Spider-Man” animated series in the 1960s, he was caught in a web of worry.
No one had ever portrayed the teenage Peter Parker and his arachnid-powered alter-ego onscreen before, and Soles certainly never felt like a superhero growing up.
“When it came time to dream up a voice for Peter Parker and Spidey, I was at a loss,” Soles, 88, recalled in a phone interview this week as he discussed the legacy of Lee, the legendary Marvel comic-book writer who died Monday.
“I was like the proverbial 19-pound weakling who gets the sand kicked in his face. I never considered myself a superhero or how he would sound. But as it turned out over the years, that is what Lee apparently intended.”
Lee wanted Spidey to be more of a human superhero, said Soles. And the actor understood teenage Peter Parker’s feelings of being an outsider amongst his peers, while bringing a deep and authoritative richness to the voice of his web-slinging personality.
Soles had previously voiced another misfit character, Hermey the elf, in the 1964 stopmotion animated TV special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Created by Lee, the original “Spider-Man” animated series was produced in Canada and the U.S., and ran on ABC from 1967 to 1970 with a cast of mostly Canadians.
Soles said producers had heard from Orson Welles and other great American performers “that the best pool of English-speaking actors was in Canada” and came to make “Rudolph,” “Spider-Man” and other projects.