64 Facts About Mitch Buchannon

Mitch Buchannon is a fictional character from the television series Baywatch.

Mitch Buchannon was played by David Hasselhoff in every season of Baywatch and Baywatch Nights plus in the first season of Baywatch Hawaii.

Mitch Buchannon appeared in three films, Baywatch the Movie: Forbidden Paradise, Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay and Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.

Later, Dwayne Johnson portrayed a lifeguard named Mitch Buchannon who is a protege of the original Mitch Buchannon in the 2017 film Baywatch.

Mitch Buchannon was born c 1954, though his age varies depending upon the episode.

Mitch Buchannon had an older brother named Buzz and the two got along quite well despite their very different personalities.

When Mitch Buchannon was 12, he received a Fender Mustang guitar that Buzz let him have.

Years later, Mitch Buchannon recalled the guitar fondly and dreamed of what his life would be like if he were a musician.

In 1995, Mitch Buchannon threw a charity concert with the Surf-Rider Foundation to build a pipeline to divert a storm drain that was polluting the coast.

In 1972, Mitch Buchannon graduated from West Palisades High School, where he sang in a band.

Gayle felt Mitch Buchannon was too invested in his work, and she couldn't handle all the time he had invested into his career.

Mitch Buchannon did not want to divorce, and he continued to love Gayle for a time, even after the marriage had ended.

Mitch Buchannon reunited with his brother Buzz in 1991, meeting Buzz's son, Kyle.

Buzz and Kyle stayed very briefly before relocating to San Diego, while Mitch Buchannon continued to raise Hobie in Venice.

Mitch Buchannon did not always have a good relationship with his father.

Mitch Buchannon felt Al did not love him and was disappointed in him.

However, Mitch Buchannon decided it wasn't for him and he decided to become a full-time lifeguard instead, something he had dreamed of doing since he was a young boy.

In 1996, when two members of the band were murdered, Mitch Buchannon solved the crime, though implicating two members of the band in a crime of their own.

Mitch Buchannon was a Navy SEAL who taught hand-to-hand combat while in the service.

Mitch Buchannon was shown to have a care-free, cavalier attitude towards his work as a SEAL, starkly contrasting the character's attitude towards the work and profession of a lifeguard.

Around 1983, Mitch Buchannon spent a year in Australia as part of the lifeguard exchange program.

Mitch Buchannon was involved in a series of accidents, and was suspicious that Wily perpetrated them.

Fortunately, Mitch Buchannon woke up and got out in time to chase Wily in the scarab, lassoing him and sending him off to the proper authorities.

In 1986, Mitch Buchannon uncovered a drug operation on the marina.

Shortly after his divorce from Gayle in 1989, Mitch Buchannon entered into a relationship with visiting lifeguard Stephanie Holden.

Three years later, when Stephanie returned to Baywatch full-time as a Lieutenant, Mitch Buchannon discovered that she was still married when he was pursuing her, and that she broke off her relationship with Mitch Buchannon in order to work things out with her husband.

Mitch Buchannon was known throughout the series for taking his career as a lifeguard very seriously.

Mitch Buchannon is devastated over this, but after realizing how much Hobie wants to stay with his father, Gayle agrees to let him stay in California.

Mitch Buchannon did this to get money for hockey equipment for Hobie.

Mitch Buchannon wanted a woman to share his life with, and more children so Hobie would have brothers and sisters.

Many episodes featured Mitch Buchannon suffering from a broken heart, usually due to betrayals, misunderstandings, or even the death of his love interest.

Mitch Buchannon briefly dated Jackie Quinn, mother of Summer, during season 4.

Mitch Buchannon was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Kaye, a newspaper reporter, who was played by David Hasselhoff's then wife, Pamela Bach.

Mitch Buchannon was despondent and full of grief over the prospect of never lifeguarding again, but when Jason's life was in danger from attackers, Mitch Buchannon was able to move his leg again and kick a gun away from the attacker's reach.

Mitch Buchannon knew then that he was on the road to recovery, and was able to rehabilitate shortly thereafter.

Mitch Buchannon often carried a badge and acted in a quasi-law enforcement capacity, occasionally doing mundane tasks such as checking boardwalk merchants for permits.

Mitch Buchannon worked alongside The FBI in one episode, helping them stake out the home of a local woman believed to be involved in crime.

In one episode, Mitch Buchannon met a mysterious woman named Kate McCoy, who helped him rescue a fishing trawler.

Mitch Buchannon immediately perceived that foul play was involved, as young healthy women do not ordinarily suffer heart attacks.

In first season episodes, Mitch Buchannon's living room couch was made from an old rowboat, but when the series was revived for its second season in 1991, more contemporary furniture was used.

In earlier episodes, many of the lifeguards were in his house to babysit Hobie when Mitch Buchannon was called away to help with lifeguard or police business.

Mitch Buchannon was involved in many sports through the run of the series.

Mitch Buchannon participated in an Ironman Competition around the time of his 40th birthday.

Additionally, Mitch Buchannon teamed with fellow lifeguard Newman to win a team rowing competition for seven years in a row.

In 1997, Mitch Buchannon initially decided to step aside from the competition so Hobie could enter, but Hobie asked him to continue, just so the two could compete.

In season 9, Mitch Buchannon participated in a stock car race where he came in second place, behind Mark Martin.

When Mitch Buchannon was eight years old, he saw the film The Maltese Falcon and was inspired to one day become a private detective.

The dream of being a detective came true in 1995 when Mitch Buchannon started a detective agency with Garner.

The character of Mitch Buchannon appeared concurrently on both series, working as a lifeguard by day and detective by night.

When Mitch Buchannon allowed Lifeguard Neely Capshaw and her daughter Ashley to stay in his home, it brought back memories of raising Hobie.

However, Mitch Buchannon became a father that season when he adopted Tanner Sloan, a runaway with derelict parents, from the junior lifeguard program.

Once more raising a child, Mitch Buchannon felt reinvigorated to be a father again.

Mitch Buchannon broke the fourth wall in the pilot episode by addressing the home viewers in the opening scene.

One day, while on duty as a lifeguard, Mitch Buchannon pulled a woman out of the water in what at first appeared to be a routine save.

In perhaps the most bizarre episode of the series, Mitch Buchannon encountered two Vikings, from the year 790 AD, who had been thawed out after centuries in a deep freeze.

The episode showed that Mitch Buchannon had an encyclopedic knowledge of Vikings, because he studied sea-faring people growing up.

Mitch Buchannon even told his friend Griff that if he had lived in those days, he would have been a Viking.

Mitch Buchannon and Garner teamed up again on the original Baywatch series in season 8, where they reached a temporary impasse due to Garner using Mitch Buchannon's new love interest, Neely Capshaw, as an undercover mole in a drug dealer's operation.

Disillusioned by his failed relationships, his mother's losing battle with Alzheimer's disease, and the fact that his son Hobie had left home and gone off to college, Mitch Buchannon decided to pack his bags and escape to Hawaii.

In spite of the fact that he pulled all four family members out of the water, Mitch Buchannon still felt a step too slow, and confessed to his friend, local lifeguard Leon 'Rock' Keaweamahi that he wished to establish a training center where lifeguards from diverse geographic locations could meet and discuss life-saving techniques.

Mitch Buchannon then put together a group of 6 elite lifeguards from California, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands, establishing them as his new team who worked at the training center.

The series carried on for one more year without the character of Mitch Buchannon, before ending in the spring of 2001.

Mitch Buchannon returned in the 2003 TV movie Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.

Mitch Buchannon was played by Dwayne Johnson in the 2017 film adaptation, with Hasselhoff making a cameo as the original Mitch Buchannon.