Michael Newmanwho was known for his role as lifeguard Mike “Newmie” Newman Baywatchdied on Sunday, October 20. He was 68.

People reports that Newman died Sunday “of heart complications,” adding that he was “surrounded by his family and friends.”

“I saw Mike the last time he was conscious and he looked at me and said in typical Mike fashion, ‘You’re just in time,’” Newman’s friend Matt Felker the outlet told us.

Newman appeared Baywatch for 10 seasons from 1989 to 2000. His character, Newmie, was loosely based on himself, as he was the only real lifeguard in the cast. He wasn’t initially a lead on the NBC action drama, but after he started performing stunts and advising the writers on rescue scenes, he became invaluable.

“I was too useful for them to get rid of me,” he said People in 2023. “I actually started out as a stuntman, and after seven years without the opening credits, I was finally anointed and allowed to be at the front of the show.”

After appearing in 150 Baywatch In the episodes, Newman retired from acting and explained that he had “a lot of fun” with his craft, but “you don’t realize how hard it is to look natural in front of the lens and see 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 there?” he noted. “Let’s face it… there aren’t many actors who have survived the years of working in Hollywood.”

While he enjoyed performing stunts Baywatchhe admitted that the dark sides of the industry influenced his decision to walk away. “Do you have to deal with the people who cross your name off the script and put their name on it?” he said. “Things like that… you never get used to that.”

Newman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2006 after his family and friends noticed he was slowing down, despite always being very athletic. “Everything changes,” he said People of dealing with the condition. “All those things you thought you were going to do with your children and grandchildren, pictures we were going to take, all the plans I had… stopped.”

Related: Original ‘Baywatch’ Cast: Where Are They Now?

The red bathing suits, tan bodies and slow-motion running make Baywatch impossible to forget – even decades after it originally aired. Baywatch followed lifeguards on a beach in California (and later Hawaii) 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 disease. “Parkinson’s disease does not wait for you. It keeps coming in.”

Newman described the disease as something “sinister” and noted that the symptoms “come on so slowly that you hardly notice them changing.”

Newman is survived by his wife Sarah, the couple’s two children, son Chris and daughter Emily, and their granddaughter Charlie.