David Hasselhoff

Biography: Before presiding over what seemed like an endless number of lifeguards running in slow motion, this curly-haired goof played tall, dark and handsome on The Young and the Restless for several years. In the '80s, he made the move to prime time as a crime fighter with a verbose vehicle in Knight Rider. After the series ran out of gas, the sexy drama Baywatch brought his lifesaving skills to the beach. Baywatch premiered on NBC in 1989, but lasted one season before it was canceled. The show was revived in syndication, became popular worldwide, and spawned specials and unsuccessful spin-offs (including Baywatch Nights and Baywatch Hawaii). Hasselhoff concurrently embarked on a music career, releasing a number of albums to great popularity in Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria. After Baywatch ended, Hasselhoff made his Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Meanwhile, "The Hoff" embraced his status as a pop-culture punch line and played a couple of campy roles in bigBefore presiding over what seemed like an endless number of lifeguards running in slow motion, this curly-haired goof played tall, dark and handsome on The Young and the Restless for several years. In the '80s, he made the move to prime time as a crime fighter with a verbose vehicle in Knight Rider. After the series ran out of gas, the sexy drama Baywatch brought his lifesaving skills to the beach. Baywatch premiered on NBC in 1989, but lasted one season before it was canceled. The show was revived in syndication, became popular worldwide, and spawned specials and unsuccessful spin-offs (including Baywatch Nights and Baywatch Hawaii). Hasselhoff concurrently embarked on a music career, releasing a number of albums to great popularity in Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria. After Baywatch ended, Hasselhoff made his Broadway debut in the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Meanwhile, "The Hoff" embraced his status as a pop-culture punch line and played a couple of campy roles in big movies (Click, Dodgeball). He returned to TV in 2006 as a judge on America's Got Talent. Off-camera, life was not as lighthearted, as he dealt with an ugly divorce from Pamela Bach, with allegations of abuse. Even after most of the details had been settled by the courts, the drama continued: In May 2007, a video featuring a drunken Hasselhoff was leaked to the media and resulted in the temporary suspension of his child visitation rights. The footage had been filmed by his daughter. In June 2007, he was awarded primary physical and sole legal custody of his children, but his personal troubles continued to plague him as he tried to sustain his career momentum. In 2010, he left America's Got Talent to do a reality show documenting life with his two daughters.… Expand