Newman, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2006, was best known for playing “Newmie” on the beloved lifeguard series.
Michael Newman, the actor best known for playing lifeguard Mike “Newmie” Newman on Baywatch, has died at 68 following an 18-year-long battle with Parkinson’s disease, according to PEOPLE.
Matthew Felker, who directed the Hulu docuseries After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun, confirmed to the outlet that Newman died “from heart complications” while surrounded by his loved ones on Oct. 20.
Felker also paid tribute to Newman and his passion for their Baywatch docuseries in an Instagram post on Monday. “Mike was not only a real life hero. He was a competitor through and through. I knew how much this series meant to him and his life,” he wrote. “There were times I wanted throw it all in the trash… and then I remembered Mike. I couldn’t let him down.. I couldn’t quit. He never did.”
A representative for Felker did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.
He recalled the last time that he saw Newman prior to his death. “He was unconscious mostly… when I showed up he was awake almost like a miracle and looked at me and said ‘you’re just in time’ and laughed. That was Mike,” Felker explained. “He found humor all the way until the end.”
The director wrote that the pair spent their final moments together reading letters and watching videos from Newman’s loved ones. “Before I left him he grabbed my hand as tight as he could and looked me dead in the eyes and just nodded, I nodded and said. ‘We will see each other again.. I promise,'” he wrote. “A few days later. I lost my friend. A hero. My hero. Thanks for coming into my life, Newmie. Even if it was a brief time.”
Born in Los Angeles, Newman made his acting debut as a lifeguard on Baywatch in 1989. He would go on to star in 150 episodes of the action series over the course of the next 11 years, and appear in multiple spinoffs including the 1989 made-for-television film Baywatch: Panic at Malibu Pier, 1996’s Baywatch Nights, and 1998’s Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay.
In addition to his work on Baywatch, Newman also juggled a busy career as a full-time firefighter and continuing to work as one throughout filming and even after the show ended in 2001. He eventually retired from the profession after 25 years of service.
In 2006, Newman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after his family members noticed that he had begun moving slower than normal. He explained in a PEOPLE interview last year that his entire world changed following the diagnosis, adding, “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 actor opened up even further about his diagnosis in Felker’s documentary, After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun. The docuseries also worked alongside the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Cedars-Sinai to raise funds for those similarly fighting Parkinson’s disease.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
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