David Hasselhoff

David Hasselhoff was born on July 17, 1952, in Baltimore, Maryland. He first became widely known on American television as Dr. William "Snapper" Foster on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless, a role he played from 1975 to 1982. His next major television part established a durable association with action-oriented popular entertainment: Michael Knight in Knight Rider. The NBC series, which ran from 1982 to 1986, followed Knight and KITT, an artificially intelligent, talking Pontiac Trans Am, as they worked for the Foundation for Law and Government. Hasselhoff also sang the program's theme song. From 1989 through 2000, Hasselhoff starred as Los Angeles County lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in Baywatch. The series initially aired on NBC, was cancelled after one season, and then returned in first-run syndication. It became an international hit, with beach rescues, ensemble storylines, and locations including Southern California and later Hawaii. Hasselhoff was not merely its lead performer; he was involved as an executive producer during its syndicated success. He reprised Buchannon for Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding, a 2003 television film. His music career found particularly strong audiences in German-speaking Europe. His 1989 cover version of "Looking for Freedom" reached number one in West Germany. On December 31, 1989, he performed the song at the Berlin Wall, shortly after its opening, in a concert televised internationally. The image of Hasselhoff singing while wearing a piano-keyboard scarf became one of the frequently recalled pop-cultural images connected with the period. His albums include Looking for Freedom, released in 1989, and David, issued in 1991. Hasselhoff expanded his screen work beyond his signature series. He appeared as himself in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), in a sequence where he carries SpongeBob and Patrick across the ocean. He played Gilbert Shephard in the 2011 film Hop and appeared in Piranha 3DD (2012). On television, he served as a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent from 2006 to 2009, alongside Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne. He later competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2010, partnered with Kym Johnson. In 2017, he made a cameo as himself in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The film used the appearance during a post-credit sequence. He also appeared in the 2017 Baywatch feature film, playing Mitch Buchannon in a brief appearance. These roles demonstrated his willingness to revisit the characters and public persona most closely associated with his career for worldwide audiences again.