Baywatch star Michael Newman dead at 68

Actor Michael Newman has died aged 68 after an 18-year battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Best known for playing the lifeguard Mike “Newmie” Newman on the hit show Baywatch, the actor died from complications due to his disease on October 20, Page Six reports.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Baywatch, The American Dream.

Matt Felker, a friend of the late actor and director of After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun, told People the complications were heart-related.

Newman appeared in the 2024 docu-series sharing his struggle with the disease.

“I got to see Mike the last time he was conscious and he looked (at) me and in typical Mike fashion said, ‘You’re just in time’,” Felker told People.

Felker added that the actor died “surrounded by his family and friends”.

Newman first received his diagnosis in 2006 when he was aged 50, learning he had the movement and mood disorder that affects dopamine production in the brain.

Newman rose to fame on Baywatch in the 1990s, and was the only cast member who was a real-life lifeguard.

Between 1989 and 2001 he appeared in 150 episodes, the second most of any actor besides David Hasselhoff.

He juggled filming with full-time firefighting commitments — something he continued with after the show finished for another 25 years.

Newman was originally employed as a stuntman on the show and eventually found himself one of its stars.

The Baywatch star went on to have a role in the 1999 film Enemy Action.

In recent years Newman devoted his time to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease, raising money for Michael J. Fox’s Foundation.

“This terminal disease has allowed me a lot of thinking time, which I maybe didn’t want, but it’s brought me wisdom,” he told People in August.

“My body has changed so slowly that I hardly notice it, yet I am constantly reminded that Parkinson’s has now become the centre of my life.”

Newman is survived by his wife of 36 years, Sarah, their two children Chris and Emily, and granddaughter Charlie.