Remembering the Stars of Baywatch: Honoring the Legacy of Those We’ve Lost

The 1990s marked a golden era for television both in the United States and globally, introducing audiences to some of the most iconic series in TV history. Dramas such as “ER,” “The X-Files,” and “Beverly Hills 90210” broke new ground for hour-long programming, while comedies like “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” and “The Simpsons” became cultural touchstones. Amidst these popular shows, none achieved the international reach and influence of “Baywatch.” Premiering in 1989 and running for 11 seasons until 2001, “Baywatch” captivated audiences worldwide.

Initially struggling on NBC, the show found its stride in syndication, transforming into a global sensation. Starring David Hasselhoff, who faced personal challenges, “Baywatch” followed the dramatic lives of lifeguards patrolling the beaches of California and Hawaii. By 1996, it had become the world’s most-watched TV series, boasting a weekly viewership of over 1.1 billion across 142 countries, according to Guinness World Records. The series also catapulted Pamela Anderson to international stardom.

While “Baywatch” continues to influence pop culture through its 2017 film adaptation and an upcoming TV reboot, some of its cast members, including regulars and guest stars, have sadly passed away. In their memory, we remember those “Baywatch” actors who have left us since the show’s global rise to fame.

Despite debates over the show’s realism, at least one original cast member brought genuine lifeguard experience to the screen. Michael “Newmie” Newman, who played a fictionalized version of himself, had firsthand experience in life-saving scenarios, having served as both a lifeguard and a full-time firefighter before joining “Baywatch.” On the show, he was depicted as the seasoned veteran of the lifeguard team.

While it’s debatable whether or not the countless millions around the world who watched “Baywatch” each week actually cared about the realism — or lack thereof — inherent in the show, at least one of its main cast members had lifeguard cred in spades. Actor Michael “Newmie” Newman was no stranger to life and death situations on the beach, having worked as a lifeguard and full-time firefighter prior to being cast as a fictionalized version of himself on “Baywatch.” As such, he was portrayed on the show as the veteran of the team.

“I was too useful for them to get rid of me,” Newman explained to People in 2024 about his impromptu career as a TV actor. “I basically started off as a stuntman, and after seven years of being out of the opening credits, I finally was anointed and allowed to be in the front of the show.”

Sadly, Newman died in October 2024 at the age of 67. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Newman had long battled Parkinson’s disease after first being diagnosed in 2006. He was survived by his wife of 37 years, a son, a daughter, and one granddaughter. During his unlikely acting career, Newman appeared in more than 100 episodes of “Baywatch” across its first 10 seasons, including the pilot film “Baywatch: Panic at Malibu Pier.” He also appeared alongside David Hasselhoff in a handful of episodes of the spin-off series “Baywatch Nights” as well as the 1998 straight-to-video film “Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay.” After leaving the show, he continued to work as a firefighter until retiring.

Pamela Bach met “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff years before the star took his act to the beaches of Southern California, when he was still starring on the NBC series “Knight Rider” in the mid-’80s. At the time, Bach was in the early days of her acting career, having logged just a handful of credits, including appearances on William Shatner’s CBS police procedural “T.J. Hooker” and the network’s short-lived sci-fi series “Otherworld.” By the time “Baywatch” rolled around, though, the couple was getting married and starting a family together.

Eventually, their work lives and personal lives intersected when Bach was hired to play reporter and restaurant owner Kate “Kaye” Morgan on multiple episodes of “Baywatch.” She later played other parts on the show and also appeared on “Baywatch Nights.” Despite having two daughters together, Bach and Hasselhoff eventually decided to call it quits, divorcing in 2006 amid irreconcilable differences.

Bach tragically died by suicide in 2025 at the age of 62. Hasselhoff later told the outlet that the family was “deeply saddened” by her passing.

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Of all the actors to appear on “Baywatch” during its fledgling years, one could argue that Richard Jaeckel was the most accomplished. The veteran screen star played Lt. Ben Edwards on a multitude of episodes during the show’s second, third, and fourth seasons. By that time, though, he had racked up an incredible list of credits and earned major accolades as an actor. In 1972, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Joe Ben in the Paul Newman-led film “Sometimes a Great Notion.” His considerable résumé also included memorable roles in films like 1967’s “The Dirty Dozen” and 1984’s “Starman.”

Jaeckel had been a Hollywood fixture for nearly five decades before joining the “Baywatch” crew, making him an ideal pick to play the part of an elder statesman on the beach and a member of the original lifeguard team in the series’ continuity — known as the Red Knights — before David Hasselhoff’s Mitch Buchanan and Co. roamed the beach. The actor also appeared on the show’s pilot movie in a different role.

“Baywatch” would prove to be one of Jaeckel’s final projects, as the star died in 1997 at the age of 70. As reported by The New York Times, his family later indicated that he had died as a result of cancer.

Scott Plank appeared in four episodes of “Baywatch” after the show had moved from Southern California to Hawaii for its final seasons. He played Sam Parks, the boyfriend of Brande Roderick’s Leigh Dyer, a lifeguard, and one of the more prominent characters on the show during Season 11. However, Plank is perhaps best known as Nick Reardon during Seasons 5 and 6 of Fox’s “Melrose Place” and Wiley Farrell on the syndicated drama “Air America.”

Sadly, Plank’s life and career were both cut tragically short in 2002 when, at the age of 43, he died, reportedly as a result of injuries suffered in a car accident. Prior to his death, Plank completed work on the 2003 Disney classic “Holes,” in which he famously played the villainous Charles “Trout” Walker in flashback sequences. Plank was given an “In Loving Memory” dedication at the end of the film’s credits.

Another “Baywatch” alum who died tragically young, Tom Villard first broke on the Hollywood scene during the early 1980s, earning small, guest parts in hit television series such as “CHiPs” and “Taxi” while appearing in films including the ill-received 1982 musical comedy “Grease II” and 1986’s Clint Eastwood-led war film “Heartbreak Ridge.” His early claim to fame came as a main cast member on both iterations of the mid- and late-’80s sitcom “We Got It Made.” Later, he played one of the more memorable students in Vada’s writing class in the classic 1991 coming-of-age film “My Girl.”

Villard may have been even more memorable when he appeared on “Baywatch,” playing a man who believed he had previously been abducted by an alien presence on Earth in the Season 3 episode “Strangers Among Us.” At one point, his character tells a young beachgoer that aliens implanted crystals into his leg so they could track his movements. He also appeared as a different character during Season 2.

Villard, who had a knack for bringing vivid characters to life on the screen, eventually went public as a gay man and revealed that he had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS during a 1994 appearance on “Entertainment Tonight,” as noted in an article in POZ magazine. He died of pneumonia later that same year, per The New York Times. He was survived by his partner, production designer Scott Chambliss.

Floyd Levine had been in show business for nearly three decades by the time his guest spot came during the eighth season of “Baywatch.” His major film credits include the 1982 comedies “Night Shift” and “Airplane II: The Sequel” and the 2007 Eddie Murphy vehicle “Norbit.” He also played Gen. Duncan in the 1988 Chuck Norris film “Braddock: Missing in Action III.” Meanwhile, he counted a multi-episode run as Dr. Howard Stein during Season 5 of Fox’s “Melrose Place” among his innumerable television credits.

He appeared in just one episode of “Baywatch,” playing an unnamed mob boss on the Season 8 episode “The Wedding: Bon Voyage.” That same year (1998), he played a gangster in the direct-to-video movie “Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay.”

After a long life in Hollywood, Levine died in 2025 at the age of 93, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. His death was announced via Instagram by his daughter-in-law, who wrote, “He started out as a cab driver in New York City before chasing Hollywood dreams in California, building an amazing acting career along the way.” Levine was survived by two sons, a daughter, and multiple grandchildren.

Richard Moll was one of the more recognizable television actors of the ’80s. From 1984 to 1992, the actor played the fan favorite character Aristotle Nostradamus “Bull” Shannon – a towering, bald, hulk of a bailiff at the Manhattan Municipal Criminal Court on the NBC sitcom “Night Court.” However, Moll was far from a one-trick pony. He also played a significant part in the DC animated universe, lending his voice to Harvey Dent/Two-Face on “Batman: The Animated Series” during the ’90s, and reprising his role in “The New Batman Adventures” thereafter. However, his list of credits is extensive, as he appeared in innumerable films and television series over the course of a career spanning 40-plus years.

The memorable voice and character actor portrayed a small-time, top-hat-wearing crook/con man called Trapper on the “Baywatch” Season 6 episode “Home Is Where the Heat Is” in 1995. In the episode, Trapper forcefully recruits Mitch Buchanan’s foster child Joey to participate in a burglary, reminding the girl that she and her late mother owed him $800.

Moll died in 2023 at the age of 80. No official cause of death was revealed, with a family spokesperson telling The Hollywood Reporter that he “died peacefully.” He had been married and divorced twice and was survived by two children and two stepchildren.

In “Baywatch,” actor/comedian Pat Morita played Hideki Tanaka on five episodes of the series’ 11th and final season. Tanaka is the father of Stacy Kamano’s Kekoa Tanaka and, over the course of the character’s run, he serves as a domineering force, disapproving of Kekoa’s lifeguard career and relationship with Michael Bergin’s Jack “J.D.” Darius. Of course, Morita was already an icon of ’80s cinema and television by the time he got the call for “Baywatch.” He famously played Mr. Miyagi across four “Karate Kid” movies, after breaking out as Matsuo “Arnold” Takahashi on the ABC sitcom “Happy Days.”

Morita was reportedly a handful behind the scenes of “Baywatch,” telling TV Guide in 2000, “I’m kind of a goofball on the set.” He admitted to doing a scene with his shirt tail sticking out of the fly of his pants to see whether one of his co-stars would notice. “I just wanted to see how his periphery was,” Morita added.

Morita died in 2005 at the age of 73. As noted by the Associated Press/The Signal (via Newspapers.com), there were different reports about his cause of death, with his longtime manager saying that the actor died of kidney failure while awaiting a transplant and his daughter saying he died of heart failure. He left behind a wife and three daughters from a previous marriage.

Another legend of the stage and screen long before he ever became involved with “Baywatch,” Irish actor Edward Mulhare was nominated for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series at the 1969 Primetime Emmys. The nom came in recognition of his performance as the titular ghost of Captain Daniel Gregg in the NBC/ABC supernatural sitcom “The Ghost & Mrs. Muir.” However, he also starred alongside David Hasselhoff as Devon Miles on “Knight Rider,” in addition to logging a veritable bonanza of television credits across his half-century in Hollywood.

Mulhare reunited with Hasselhoff on a single episode of the supernatural spin-off series “Baywatch Nights” in 1997. He played Dr. Lancaster, a scientist who thaws and revives a group of preserved Viking warriors after a volcanic eruption causes them to be freed from a glacier. Not long after the episode — titled “Frozen Out of Time” — aired, Mulhare died at the age of 74 after a five-month battle with lung cancer. The Los Angeles Times noted that he had been a heavy smoker before quitting in 1979. He was survived by two brothers.

Actor Marcia Strassman entered the “Baywatch” universe in 1997 during the Season 8 episode “Out of the Blue.” In the show, Strassman portrayed Rena Jaffe, a white woman who’s revealed to be the mother of Traci Bingham’s Jordan Tate. During the episode, it’s further revealed that Jordan’s father was a Black marine who was killed in Vietnam, after which Rena gave her up for adoption amid societal pressures and a desire to give her a better life.

Strassman was well-known before her “Baywatch” guest spot, having starred as Julie Kotter — the wife of the titular teacher — in the hit ’70s ABC sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter.” She also played Diane Szalinski across the first two installments of the “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” franchise, as well as the Disney theme park short “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!” Other major credits include Sci-Fi’s “Tremors” adaptation and the “21 Jump Street” spin-off “Booker.” However, her list of credits spanned a half-century in Hollywood.

Strassman died in 2014 at the age of 66, seven years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, as reported by The New York Times. She was survived by two siblings and a daughter.