HE SHOT to fame as one half of the crimefighting duo Starsky and Hutch.

Now Hollywood actor David Soul is visiting Hampshire to talk about his role in the restoration of a car once owned by the legendary American writer Ernest Hemingway.

Nobel Prize-winning Hemingway lived in Cuba for many years and wrote some of his best-known works on the island.

He owned a 1955 Chrysler New York convertible but left it behind when he returned the United States following the Cuban revolution of 1959.

Two years later, suffering from depression and a range of physical ailments, he committed suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

His car subsequently disappeared and was in a derelict condition when it was eventually found in 2010.

The 60-year-old vehicle is currently being restored by a museum based at the writer’s former home in the Cuban capital of Havana.

Writing on his website David Soul says he has enjoyed being involved in the iconic car’s restoration.

He said: “Since acquiring my British passport in 2004 I have visited Cuba a number of times and have befriended the directors of the museum.

“As a result they asked me to help locate the parts necessary to restore the car to its original condition.”

The actor’s contribution to the project has been filmed for a documentary called Cuban Soul.

Hemingway paid $3,924 for the vehicle while living in Cuba, where he penned For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man And The Sea and Islands In The Stream.

Soul – a Hemingway fan – is visiting the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, on October 10 where he will give a talk about the car’s restoration and his involvement in it.

The 72-year-old actor played Detective Ken Hutchinson in Starsky and Hutch, which ran from 1975 until 1979.

He and co-star Paul Michael Glaser also made a cameo appearance in the 2004 film version of the series.

Soul later starred alongside James Mason in a 1979 TV mini-series based on Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.

In 2005 he was cast in the first series of Little Britain.

He also appeared in the Poirot adventure Death On The Nile and played a murder victim in the detective drama series Lewis.

Anyone wishing to attend his talk should call the museum on 01590 614608.