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About David Hasslehoff
Born: 17 July 1952, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
David is an American actor, singer and songwriter who is best known for his starring roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch. He has also developed a successful music career, especially in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.
Acting Career
Knight Rider was a popular American television series that ran between September 26th, 1982 and August 8th, 1986. It was broadcast on the NBC television network and starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a kind of modern-day "knight" who drove an advanced smart car with artificial intelligence. During the show his character developed a wonderfully entertaining relationship wit the car's computer known as K.I.T.T (Knight Industry's Two Thousand).
In the opening programme a dying millionaire named Wilton Knight rescued a young undercover cop called Michael Long, who had been shot in the face. After plastic surgery Long had a new face a new name - Michael Knight. He also had a new goal - to fight for good in the Knight’s super-car, the Knight Industries Two Thousand–or KITT.
The car was a trendy looking black Pontiac Trans-Am and was virtually indestructable. Able to reach speads of 300 mph, the car could jump up 60 feet through the air using its Turbo boost, and was armoured with flamethrowers, a laser, and infrared sensing devices. The car's computer could also talk and had a personality all its own; straight, well manored but also protective of Michael Knight.
Knight could call the car when in trouble and it would come out of nowhere to the rescue. Wilton Night has left behind a large estate to finance the crime-fighting, and a trusted English colleague named Devon Miles to run the show. Based at 'The Foundation', Michael went every episode along with a huge juggernaut which was used to service the car and as a mobile HQ.
The show is still repeated today in the UK on the Bravo TV channel.
Baywatch. David Hasselhoff returned to television on Baywatch which premiered in 1989. Although it was cancelled after only one series, David considered the programme had real potential and revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991, investing his own money and additionally functioning as executive producer. Under Hasselhoff's leadership, Baywatch became incredibly successful and ran in syndication for another ten series. It was also well-received around the globe and has been shown in over 140 countries.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Baywatch is the most watched TV show in the world, with over 1.1 billion viewers
Singing Career
David Hasselhoff launched his singing career with guest appearances on the children's program Kids Incorporated and also obtained permission to produce a Knight Rider episode ("Let It Be Me") which focused on his singing talents. The episode served as a springboard for his 1985 debut album Night Rocker.
The debut album was released while he was still working on the show. After two moderately successful albums, he recorded "Looking for Freedom" with German producer Jack White in the summer of 1989 and released it just as the Berlin Wall came down. It resonated with the newly unified nation and he performed it from the top of the Wall as the people tore it down.
In Germany, his song became an anthem of sorts at the time, and the album went gold and triple platinum, topping the charts for three months whilst the single managed a mere eight weeks. He was later announced as the best selling artist of 1989 in Germany even prompting the newspaper headline "Hasselhoff: not since the Beatles." Since then, another six of his albums have gone platinum in Europe.
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