By Arlene Vigoda, USA TODAY
For Baywatch's David Hasselhoff, the road from the beach to Broadway included a few side trips.
"It only took me 40 years to get there," quips the actor/singer, who'll play the title role of the long-running hit musical Jekyll & Hyde from Halloween night through March. "When I was 7, I saw a play called Rumpelstiltskin, and I just knew I wanted to be in the theater."
Hasselhoff, 48, born in Baltimore, started in community theater when he was 8. "I felt alive onstage," he says. "I was always the shy, tall guy with the skinny legs, but when I hit the stage, I could kick a-- and be king."
Hasselhoff says that nabbing the Broadway part is "mind-blowing and terrifying because it's the title role and then some. There's 14 songs the character sings, plus you have to carry the whole show through all the dialogue."
Still, he's up for the challenge, because the Broadway gig came at just the right time. He had recently passed on a TV series so that he could co-star as the evil nemesis in Mike Myers' now-scotched Dieter movie. "I thought, 'This is hysterical. I just turned down a series, and now Dieter's canceled. Now I have the time to do what I want.' Out of nowhere came the Jekyll & Hyde offer."
Hasselhoff also has a mega-successful singing career abroad and is working on his 10th album, a Spanish-English bilingual project. "I have 40 gold and platinum records hanging on my wall," he says proudly.
His European popularity, though, has yet to translate to U.S. music success. "I can't get airplay here," he says matter-of-factly. "I once went to a radio station to talk about my album, and all the DJ wanted to know was whether the Baywatch actresses' boobs were real."
Still, Baywatch (which he now executive-produces, after starring as lead lifeguard Mitch Buchannon for a decade) and Knight Rider have earned him a place in Guinness World Records as the "most-watched TV star in the world."
Says Hasselhoff, who is married to actress Pamela Bach: "My kids think it's pretty cool that people know me everywhere. Nobody is going to break that record for a long time."