Michael Newman. Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
Michael Newman, who was known for his role as lifeguard Mike “Newmie” Newman on Baywatch, died on Sunday, October 20. He was 68.
People reports that Newman died “from heart complications” on Sunday, adding that he was “surrounded by his family and friends.”
“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,’” Newman’s friend Matt Felker told the outlet.
Newman appeared on Baywatch for 10 seasons from 1989 to 2000. His character, Newmie, was based loosely on himself since he was the only real lifeguard in the cast. He was not initially a featured actor on the NBC action drama, but after he began performing stunts and offering guidance to the writers about rescue scenes, he became invaluable.
“I was too useful for them to get rid of me,” he told People in 2023. “I basically started off as a stuntman, and after seven years of being out of the opening credits, I finally was anointed and allowed to be in the front of the show.”
After appearing in 150 Baywatch episodes, Newman retired from acting, explaining that he “took great pleasure” from his craft but “you don’t realize how hard it is to look natural in front of the lens and watch yourself improve and, sometimes, not improve.”
Show business was ultimately not in his long-term plans. “If you didn’t have to be there, why would you be?” he noted. “Let’s be honest … there’s not too many actors that have survived the years of working in Hollywood.”
While he enjoyed doing stunts on Baywatch, he confessed that the darker sides of the industry influenced his decision to walk away. “Having to deal with the people who scratch your name out on the script and put their name on there?” he said. “That kind of thing … you never get used to that.”
Newman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2006 after his family and friends noticed him slowing down despite always being very athletic. “Everything changes,” he told People of dealing with the condition. “All those things that you thought you were going to do with your children and grandchildren, pictures we were going to take, all the plans I had … stopped.”
The red bathing suits, tan bodies and slow-motion running makes Baywatch impossible to forget — even decades after it originally aired. Baywatch followed lifeguards on a California (and later, Hawaii) beach as they saved innocent people from drowning, sharks and the occasional serial killer. The drama first premiered on NBC in 1989 and ran for […]
“It’s a slow burn,” Newman added of the progression of his illness. “Parkinson’s disease doesn’t wait for you. It keeps on plowing in.”
Newman described the disease as a “sinister” thing, noting that the symptoms “march forward so slowly that you barely notice that they’re changing.”
Newman is survived by his wife, Sarah, the couple’s two children, son Chris and daughter Emily, and their granddaughter, Charlie.
