A Look Back At David Hasselhoff's Friendship With Michael Newman

David Hasselhoff is mourning the death of his friend and former "Baywatch" co-star, Michael Newman, who passed away on October 20, 2024 at the age of 67. "Newman was a warrior ... he literally saved my life at least four times," Hasselhoff told the New York Post. "He did the transfer from the scarab to jet skis several times perfectly. What an amazing man. He was never afraid of the water." 

Newman didn't start out as an actor. In fact, he was the only cast member of "Baywatch" that was a real lifeguard off screen. "I remember directing him in a few episodes and he was really good," Hasselhoff recalled. "He became a great actor. We will all miss him." Hasselhoff posted this tribute on his Instagram account as well, displaying it alongside a photo of both actors on the set of the hit show, smiling side by side.

Newman was also a full time firefighter while filming "Baywatch," and after the show ended, he returned to firefighting. Per People, Newman was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2006. His death was confirmed by Matt Felker, a close friend of Newman and director of the recent documentary "After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun." Felker said Newman died "from heart complications" and was "surrounded by his family and friends" at the time of his death. "I got to see Mike the last time he was conscious and he looked [at] me and in typical Mike fashion said, 'You're just in time,'" Felker added.

Both David Hasselhoff and Michael Newman were mainstays on "Baywatch," but they both came from different worlds. Hasselhoff was a trained actor while Newman was a real lifeguard, and the two often helped each other as the show combined both of their skills. Newman even served as a stand-in for Hasselhoff. In 2014, Newman said (via The Daily Mail), "Most of the time, when you saw Hasselhoff's legs, you were often looking at my own legs." He even joked, "Hasselhoff always had very skinny chicken legs!" Newman added that as a technical consultant for the show, the writers would ask him how to make the show's action scenes look as realistic as possible. "I would dictate all this information to these guys and they would repay me by writing me some good stuff in the show," he said.

Both actors achieved the rare feat of appearing in more than 100 episodes of the series. According to IMDb, Hasselhoff appeared in 220 episodes of the series while Newman appeared in 150. Hasselhoff and Newman were two of the only cast members to continue appearing on the show when it relocated from Los Angeles to Hawaii and was renamed "Baywatch: Hawaii." Both departed the show in 2000 at the end of its 10th season.