David Hasselhoff: How close have you come to dying?

The question

How close have you come to dying?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

David Hasselhoff

American actor, singer, and television personality

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Scuba diving in Costa Rica. My stunt double and I were trying out some equipment that let us talk to each other and I ran out of air at 80ft - probably because I talked too much. I had to use his air. Then we were surrounded by sharks. It was scary.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 April 2009 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →

Fatima Bhutto Pakistani writer

I don’t know. I prefer it that way.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 February 2021 source ↗

Zack Polanski

Catching Covid. I don’t think any of us know what we’re messing with still to this day.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2025 source ↗

Esther Freud

My parents died within four days of each other. I was engulfed as I ran from one bedside to another.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 July 2026 source ↗

Sofia Helin Swedish actress

When I had a bicycle accident when I was 24. I was on a bridge going down; the bicycle broke and I smashed to the ground, face first. I broke my jaw and my teeth, and had to have plastic surgery. It all took half a year and then, funnily enough, I got my first big job – a TV series – with what I thought of then as this big, ugly scar.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗