The black Trans Am still sits motionless on the digital highway of memory, its scanner sweeping through forty-four years of pop culture history. But time, unlike KITT’s powerful V-8 engine, does not idle. It races forward without mercy.
The cast of Knight Rider has weathered that race, and the ledger of who remains behind the wheel and who has taken their final ride is now starkly split down the middle.
William Daniels, the golden voice of the indomitable KITT, has crossed a milestone few ever reach. At 99 years old, he is the surviving heart of the machine, the soul that turned a Pontiac Trans Am into a cultural icon. His vocal performance remains one of the most recognized in television history.
He is a living relic of a time when technology was a friend, not a threat. His retirement from regular acting does not diminish his legacy, rather, it cements it into the bedrock of classic television.
David Hasselhoff, the man who drove the legend as Michael Knight, has reached the age of 74. While the cynical world expects him to have faded with the big hair and the leather jackets, the Hoff has done anything but retreat. He remains a global pop culture phenomenon, riding the waves of mortality with a self-effacing charm that turns nostalgia into a revenue stream.
He is still performing, still making appearances, and remains perpetually linked to the man who gave a second life to the supercar. His survival status is a triumph of reinvention.
Rebecca Holden, who stepped into the garage as April Curtis in the second season, is 68 years old. She saw the seams of the tech—aiding KITT with a calm intellect that balanced the explosive action. Unlike her co-star Patricia McPherson, whose “Bonnie” overshadowed her with legions of fans, Holden has created a legacy in the television landscape.
Today she is alive, vibrant, and still attending fan conventions, honoring the brief but deeply cherished tenure of April. It is a reminder that every cog in the Knight Industries Two Thousand—even the human ones—are essential to the mission.
Patricia McPherson, the engineer most fans view as the perfect partner for the car, celebrated her 72nd turn around the sun. After wielding a wrench against the KITT plating, McPherson traded the Hollywood set lights for the natural light of environmental activism. She is living a quiet public life, but the surgical precision she brought to Bonnie Barstow has been a sanctuary for viewers who love intelligence over flash.
She is a survivor who walked away from the limelight, content to let the roaring engine of her youth fade into a gentle hum.
Peter Parros, who introduced the streetwise energy of Reginald Cornelius III into the final season, is still driving through the entertainment industry at 66. He traded the KITT garage for the courts of daytime 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒶, finding long-term success in soap operas. He embraces his role in classic TV nostalgia, a living bridge to the show’s final chapters.
The young ally who brought a different flavor to the geographic framework is a part of the tapestry that remains breathing. His career continues to move, even if not always in the rearview mirror of the Trans Am.
The women of the show have also weathered the storms of time. Catherine Hickland, who played the heartbreaking Stevie March, is now 70 years old. She pivoted from the simulated the role of Michael Knight’s doomed love to a life of self-actualization, becoming a hypnotist, author, and entertainer.
These days, her recognition comes not from a screensaver but from her own motivational toolkit. Anne Turkel, the dazzling villain Adrianne St. Claire, turns 79 this year.
She exists in a state of quiet survival, far from the public eye, but her striking moments on screen have angered the test of time, ensuring her beauty and menace remain untouchable in memory.
However, for every survivor, the highway has claimed another author. The tally of those ignored by time is a grim inventory. Edward Mulhare, the always stoic Devon Miles, has been gone for almost three decades.
Mr. Feeny passed away due to lung cancer, his passing in 1997 taking the bedrock of the Foundation. William Daniels remains the vocal grandmother, but Mulhare was the face of heart.
Richard Basehart, who never saw his creation fly past his imagination, died in 1984, his mission ending as the new Michael Knight took flight. David Hasselhoff’s own mentor looking to a death that seems far away, as he is, but is now achieved 73.
Lance LeGault, the baritone of so many tough-guys, died in 2012. He played the kind of character who punctuated the 1986 era with a fists-on-jaw. George Washington Jackson, the character actor behind the legal concerns, also passed in the same era?
His exit in 2012 severed one of the roots of the series. But none is as sad as the recent passing of Barbara Rush. She died in 2024 at 97, just before her viewers could celebrate her golden era.
She survives as the final late representative to me, a future that used to be graceful.
They rarely play a demo, but they changed a generation. Peter Rooney, the victim of a brutal hunger, died in 2009. Jack Starrett, the director, a tough guy, died far too young back in 1989, sitting on the memory.
The part of KARR voice, despite the mechanical menace, is carried by the iconic voice of Optimus prime, Peter Cullen, who not only survives but stands tall 85 years old. He shares the voice legacy with Daniels, making how the show survived the monotony of physical existence.
The final accounting of the cast that was and the cast that is—as of 2026—is unbalanced. While we grieve the loss of iconic performers like Edward Mulhare and the short-short life of William Daniels himself, the space is filled by the greying, but film, legends. As the 44th year dawns, the True Human Attraction or the Machine is cast by the survivors.
The car is immortal, but its pilots are fully mortal.
In the 1980s, there was a general, a work of [magic. ](found but not logic). Today, the members of the team have survived, but the radar is onwards.
The gray, this be no cut on Pratt, but to be alive in its memorials. We are the Knight Rider’s legacy, tired but durable. We are the FUEL of the maintenance.
And the lights above the car will remain on.
