Actor Michael Newman of Baywatch died on Sunday, 18 years after he was recognized with Parkinson’s illness. He was 68.
Newman, who introduced his real-world lifeguarding expertise to play Michael “Newmie” Newman on the profitable ’80s and ’90s soapy drama, was recognized with Parkinson’s in 2006.
His shut good friend, director Matt Felker, introduced information of Newman’s dying on social media on Monday.
Felker, who directed the reflective docuseries After Baywatch: Second within the Solar, advised Individuals journal that Newman died “from coronary heart problems.”
Michael Newman on the premiere of the docuseries “After Baywatch: Second within the Solar” at The Bungalow on Aug. 26, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif.
Gilbert Flores/Selection by way of Getty Pictures
He mentioned Newman was “surrounded by his household and buddies” on the time of his dying.
On social media, Felker wrote, “Mike was not solely an actual life hero. He was a competitor by way of and thru.”
Felker mentioned there have been typically occasions whereas producing the Baywatch docuseries that he needed to “throw all of it within the trash,” however didn’t due to Newman’s enthusiasm and help.
The sequence, which premiered this yr, profiles the lives Baywatch stars in the present day and discusses a lot of the solid’s journey to fame.
“I bought to see Mike earlier than he handed away. He was unconscious principally… once I confirmed up he was awake virtually like a miracle and checked out me and mentioned ‘you’re simply in time’ and laughed,” Felker recalled. “That was Mike. He discovered humor all the way in which till the tip.”
In August, whereas selling After Baywatch: Second within the Solar, Newman mentioned his Parkinson’s analysis has introduced “a whole lot of pondering time, which I perhaps didn’t need, but it surely’s introduced me knowledge.”
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“My physique has modified so slowly that I hardly discover it, but I’m continually reminded that Parkinson’s has now grow to be the centre of my life,” he mentioned.
Parkinson’s illness is a degenerative motion dysfunction of the nervous system that progresses slowly. An individual could first expertise one thing like hand tremors earlier than signs grow to be worse over time. The illness impacts bodily features like stability, speech and motion. There is no such thing as a remedy.
Newman appeared in 150 episodes of Baywatch, which ran from 1989 to 2001. He was the one solid member to have precise lifeguarding expertise. The sequence famously starred David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, Nicole Eggert and Alexandra Paul, amongst many others.
Newman additionally appeared within the spinoff sequence Baywatch Night times and the 1998 movie Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay.
Donna D’Errico, Michael Newman and Traci Bingham attend a ‘Baywatch’ press occasion at Malibu Seashore in Malibu, Calif., on July 17, 1996.
Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Pictures
Apart from performing, Newman was additionally a full-time firefighter and retired after 25 years of service, even balancing firefighting along with his Baywatch filming schedule.
He was an advocate for Parkinson’s analysis and spent a lot of the final decade elevating cash for the Michael J. Fox Basis, which is devoted to the seek for a remedy.
Newman is survived by his spouse, Sarah, his kids, son Chris and daughter Emily, and his granddaughter, Charlie.
In response to Parkinson’s Canada, greater than 12,500 individuals within the nation have been recognized with the illness between 2019 and 2020. In that very same timeframe, there have been believed to be greater than 103,000 instances of Parkinson’s in Canada.
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