David Hasselhoff

Making his name as an actor in the US soap Young And The Restless, David Hasselhoff found huge international fame, firstly with his talking car K.I.T.T. in crime fighting sci-fi series Knight Rider and then with Pamela Anderson and a bevy of slow-motion running glamour girls in lifeguard drama Baywatch - the most watched TV show of all time. Years before he donned the orange swimming trunks, Hasselhoff's attempt at a music career fell flat in America and the UK, but became surprisingly successful in Eastern Europe. Debut album Night Rocker (1985) shot to Number 1 in Austria, before his single Looking For Freedom (along with the album of the same name) became a huge hit in West Germany and an unofficial anthem during the downfall of the Berlin Wall. The Hoff even played at a New Year's Eve concert among the rubble in 1989 just a month after the downfall of communism, and continued to have major hits in Germany over the next decade. Back in the States he became a judge on the talent show America's Got Talent in 2006 (later switching to Britain's version) and scored a Number 3 hit in the UK when his single Jump In My Car was re-released - backed by BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills' publicity campaign to "Get Hasselhoff to Number 1". Still a huge tabloid celebrity, he also hit the headlines when he battled alcoholism and also starred in the fly-on-the-wall reality show The Hasselhoffs.