David Hasselhoff - Biography

Tall, strapping TV perennial since the early 1970s, who has managed to stay visible thanks to two lucrative series. Hasselhoff began his career on the CBS daytime serial "The Young and the Restless" as Snapper Foster, a young good-looking doctor from the wrong side of the tracks. After eight years on the show, Hasselhoff became one of the first soap opera actors to segue to primetime success as Michael Knight on NBC's "Knight Rider" (1982-86). Michael Knight was a former cop who did his crime fighting from a superbly powerful and gadget-laden talking car.

When the series ended its run, Hasselhoff found himself almost unemployable in Hollywood. Thanks to "Knight Rider" and such TV movies as 1984's "The Cartier Affair", in which he was stud to Joan Collins, he had gained the reputation as being all pectorals and no talent. Licking his wounds, Hasselhoff headed to Europe, not to do spaghetti westerns as others in his predicament had done in the 60s, but rather to launch a singing and recording career. The results were spectacular, including albums which have gone platinum in Germany and Austria. Hollywood beckoned again in 1989, and this time Hasselhoff was showing his pectorals as head lifeguard on NBC's action series "Baywatch". The show lasted one season, but returned in international syndication in 1991. This time Hasselhoff would be master of his own fate. Besides starring and executive producing, Hasselhoff had a major equity share--twenty five percent--of the first-run syndicated effort. "Baywatch" was produced for less than $1 million per episode. Not only was it wildly successful in domestic syndication, but soon was being called "the most popular series in the world" by industry trade publications. Hasselhoff added to the success by launching "Baywatch Nights", in which he also starred, in the fall of 1995.

While the success of the series boosted his already burgeoning recording career overseas, Hasselhoff still was frustrated in cracking the American market as a singer. To boost domestic record sales, he starred in a pay-per-view special, "David Hasselhoff and his Baywatch Friends," singing and dancing. But "Miracle of Love," the 1995 domestic album failed to connect. Still, Hasselhoff found himself riding the crest of international fame, with two TV series airing in more than 80 countries.