Ole Søltoft

Who was Ole Søltoft?

Ole Søltoft was a Danish actor who became an icon of the 1970s wave of Danish erotic feature film comedies. For over a decade he starred or co-starred in nearly all notable films in this genre and became hopelessly typecast, usually playing naive, likeable guys with a healthy sexual appetite. He is especially remembered for the Bedside-films and Zodiac-films, though his big breakthrough was as the romantic lead in Annelise Meineche's Sytten.

Ole Søltoft was born in Kolding and was the son of engineer Svend Aage Sølvtoft and his wife Maria Rita Viola Sølvtoft. He grew up in Holeby on the island of Lolland and was a substitute teacher after high school. Then he studied one year at the Tandlægehøjskolen.

Through student revues he was admitted to Private Theatres' Pupil School from 1960 to 1962. He debuted at the People's Theatre in 1962 and was already in the apprenticeship role of the mischievous Nicholas in Nøddebo Præstegård.

Søltoft began his film career with the role of Jacob in 1962's Den kære familie, a film about turn of the century Copenhagen. After a few small roles, the breakthrough of Erik Soya's Sytten in 1965 began a wave of erotic films for Søltoft. In Den røde rubin, Søltoft starred as Ask Burlefot, who goes from shy schoolboy to sexually experienced. He went on to star in numerous films of the 1970s, mainly sex comedies and erotic comedies - roles that have always put him pigeonholed by the audience and the press. He usually played a confused little man who had to fight his way through a sea of sexy girls. He starred in the successful, decade-long series of Bedside-films, including Mazurka på sengekanten, Tandlæge på sengekanten and Rektor på sengekanten. Søltoft also played in several of Zodiac-films, where Zodiac signs were part of the film's title; for example, I Løvens tegn, I Jomfruens tegn, and I Tyrens tegn. He retired from film in 1978.