The Only ‘Knight Rider’ Cast Members Still Alive Today

“A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist.” Those words opened every episode of Knight Rider, spoken over Stu Phillips and Glen A. Larson’s pulsing synthesizer theme while a black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am tore across the desert. The show premiered on NBC on September 26, 1982, and it turned a talking car named KITT into one of the most famous vehicles in television history.

Larson’s series ran for four seasons and 90 episodes before its finale on April 4, 1986. The Knight Rider cast was small, which is part of why fans still remember every face at the Foundation for Law and Government. Forty-four years after that premiere, here is what happened to each of them, and which Knight Rider cast members are still alive today.

Is Richard Basehart still alive?

Richard Basehart played Wilton Knight, the dying billionaire who rescues a wounded detective named Michael Long. Wilton gives him a new face and a new name, then hands him the keys to KITT. Wilton dies in the pilot. Basehart never really left the show, though, because his rich voice delivered the opening and closing narration for the entire run.

Television fans already knew him as Admiral Harriman Nelson on Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which ran from 1964 to 1968. Movie fans knew him from Federico Fellini’s La Strada and as Ishmael in John Huston’s Moby Dick. In August 1984 he was chosen to narrate a poem at the closing ceremony of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

Richard Basehart is not alive. According to a 1984 UPI report, he suffered a series of strokes beginning the morning after that Olympic broadcast. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on September 17, 1984, at age 70. He was survived by his wife, Diana, and three children. Knight Rider kept his narration on the air for the rest of its run, so viewers heard him every week long after he was gone.

The man Wilton Knight trusted to carry on his work outlived him on screen by years. Off screen, that actor had a remarkable story of his own.

Is Edward Mulhare still alive?

Edward Mulhare played Devon Miles, the elegant British head of FLAG who sent Michael Knight on each new mission. He appeared in every episode of the series. Born in Cork, Ireland, on April 8, 1923, Mulhare had already earned a place in Broadway history. He was the first actor to replace Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.

Before Knight Rider, he was best known as the ghostly sea captain Daniel Gregg on The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, which aired from 1968 to 1970. He also played Malcolm Rodney opposite James Coburn in Our Man Flint. After Knight Rider ended, he returned as Devon in the 1991 TV movie Knight Rider 2000. According to Hello!, he later reunited with David Hasselhoff on Baywatch Nights in 1996.

Edward Mulhare is not alive. According to UPI and The Spokesman-Review, he died of lung cancer on May 24, 1997, at age 74. He had been battling the disease for about five months. His final feature film, Out to Sea, was released after his death. He was buried in his native Cork, and the spinoff Team Knight Rider dedicated its episode “K.R.O.” to his memory that October.

Devon’s FLAG team also needed someone to keep KITT running. The show went through two technicians, and both of them are still with us.

Is Rebecca Holden still alive?

Rebecca Holden joined in Season 2 as April Curtis, the technician who took over KITT’s care after Bonnie Barstow left. Holden was born in Dallas, Texas, on June 12, 1958. She studied music at the University of North Texas and moved to New York, where she became a Breck Girl before landing acting work.

April lasted a single season. After the show, Holden played the scheming Elena on General Hospital and guest starred on Magnum, P.I. and Cheers. She also kept singing. In 1989 she charted two country singles, “The Truth Doesn’t Always Rhyme” and “License to Steal.” Later she toured in Together Forever, a tribute to Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé.

Yes, Rebecca Holden is still alive, and she is 68 years old. According to Hello!, she still works mainly in independent films, including the 2023 western Was Once a Hero. She also sings and does charity work. In 2022 she was named a board director and Ambassador of Goodwill for The Stars Foundation. She recorded a new interview for Knight Rider: Declassified, the fan-funded documentary about the original series.

That same documentary landed an interview fans had waited decades for. It came from the woman April replaced.

Is Patricia McPherson still alive?

Patricia McPherson played Dr. Bonnie Barstow, KITT’s chief technician, in Season 1. Producers dropped the character after that first year. Viewers wanted her back, and McPherson returned for Seasons 3 and 4, staying through the finale. She was born in Oak Harbor, Washington.

Her later credits included a guest role on the series Starman. Then McPherson made a choice few actors make. She retired from acting in the early 1990s to protect the land around her in Los Angeles. As our earlier look at Patricia McPherson’s life after Bonnie Barstow explained, she went from fixing cars on screen to fixing the environment. She founded the Grassroots Coalition and has spent roughly three decades fighting to preserve the Ballona Wetlands in Southern California.

Yes, Patricia McPherson is still alive. Published sources disagree on her birth year, giving dates from 1954 to 1957, which puts her at about 70. According to Knight Rider Online and TV Insider, she gave her most in-depth interview ever about the show for Knight Rider: Declassified. The five-hour documentary from WheelhouseTV took three years to make, and its producers are aiming for a Christmas release. She is married to James Garrett.

When McPherson came back for Season 3, a new face was about to join her for the final year. He arrived with a past of his own.

Is Peter Parros still alive?

Peter Parros played Reginald Cornelius III, known to everyone as RC3, in the fourth and final season. RC3 was a former street vigilante who joined FLAG and drove its mobile unit. The role was his first as a series regular. Parros was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 11, 1960.

His career after Knight Rider was long and steady. He played Leo Baines on The Young and the Restless and Dr. Ben Price on One Life to Live. Daytime fans know him best as Dr. Ben Harris on As the World Turns, a role he played from 1996 to 2005 and again in 2009. From 2013 to 2021 he played Judge David Harrington on Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots for OWN.

Yes, Peter Parros is still alive, and he is 65 years old. He turns 66 next month. According to WUNC and BroadwayWorld, he served as a celebrity co-chair of the 2026 International Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He shared the job with his Haves and Have Nots co-star Angela Robinson, and the festival ran from July 27 to August 1. Hello! reports that he is married to Jerri Morgan and that they have a son, Clayton, and a daughter, Petra.

RC3 drove the truck, but only one man ever really drove KITT. His life since 1986 has been bigger than the show itself.

Is David Hasselhoff still alive?

David Hasselhoff played Michael Knight, the detective reborn with a new identity after a near-fatal shooting. He also played Garthe Knight, Wilton’s estranged son, who drove a menacing armored semi called Goliath. Hasselhoff was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 17, 1952.

After Knight Rider his song “Looking for Freedom” went to number one in Germany. Then he became lifeguard Mitch Buchannon on Baywatch, which made him one of the most recognized faces on the planet. He returned as Michael Knight in Knight Rider 2000 and kept the role alive in cameos for decades. In 2018 he married Hayley Roberts in Apulia, Italy.

Yes, David Hasselhoff is still alive, and he is 74 years old. This year has been about recovery. According to The Washington Times and Hello!, his representative confirmed he had knee and hip replacement surgery and has been in physical therapy. He was photographed using a walker after sessions this spring. His team says he is doing well. Hasselhoff also recorded a new interview for Knight Rider: Declassified.

For years Hasselhoff spoke his lines to a script supervisor reading the car’s part off camera. The man who actually voiced KITT is the last cast member on this list, and his story may be the most remarkable of all.

Is William Daniels still alive?

William Daniels gave KITT its dry, precise and slightly exasperated personality. He asked not to be credited, and for much of the run many viewers had no idea whose voice they were hearing. He recorded his lines after each episode was filmed. In 1982 he told the Toronto Star he had never met the cast.

That changed at a Christmas party months into the first season. According to TVLine, Daniels later recalled the meeting for the Television Academy. “He said, ‘You son of a gun. How long does it take you to do it?’ I said, ‘About 50 minutes.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m out there in the road, in the desert, sweating.'”

Daniels was voicing KITT while starring as Dr. Mark Craig on St. Elsewhere, a role that won him Emmys in 1985 and 1986. On the night of his second win, his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, won the supporting actress Emmy. A new generation met him as the teacher George Feeny on Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1999 to 2001. In 2017 he published his memoir, There I Go Again: How I Came to Be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others.

Yes, William Daniels is still alive, and he is 99 years old. He was born in New York City on March 31, 1927. When he turned 99 this spring, he told TODAY, “I think the most important thing you should know is that I am very lucky.” He and Bonnie still work out with a trainer twice a week. “My advice to others is to keep moving,” he said.

Daniels and Bartlett married in 1951, and this year marks 75 years together. “I have a wonderful wife, Bonnie, who has put up with me for 75 years,” he joked to TODAY. His official website lists an appearance at The Hollywood Show in Burbank on October 24, so fans can still meet the voice of KITT in person.