A familiar face on TV from the 1980s, David Hasselhoff, comes to movie screens today in horror comedy Piranha 3-DD, which puts "the Hoff" back in familiar form - in a swimming costume and with a bevy of bikini-clad friends.

Channelling his Baywatch character, Mitch Buchannon, Hasselhoff makes a guest appearance at a water park in the movie just as flesh-eating piranhas move in for the kill.

The film is a sequel to the 2010 surprise success Piranha 3D.

Speaking about how he became involved in the movie, Hasselhoff said: "I saw Piranha and my stunt double did all the stunts on it. I really kind of liked it. I think it was because the girls were hot and the stunts were good, and I knew my stunt double was underwater, holding all the girls down. He had a lot of fun playing with naked girls and drowning them."

Hasselhoff said he met Bob Weinstein, co-chairman of the company that produced the movie, and Weinstein told him he had to do Piranha 3-DD.

"I got to play my character dark and that's what I wanted to do," said Hasselhoff.

He joked that his first thoughts on the set were: "'Oh my God, what's happened to my career? Not only am I in this stupid movie, I'm not going to make any rescues!' That was the fun part about doing it."

Hasselhoff said the low-budget of Baywatch had made him rich.

He executive-produced the TV series about beach lifeguards, overseeing tight budgets that sometimes left insufficient tape to shoot a scene.

His solution was to shoot women in bikinis in slow motion. It became the show's signature and made him a fortune.

In 2007, the actor fell under the media's harsh glare for his infamous "cheeseburger video", taped by his daughter. It shows an obviously drunk Hasselhoff trying to eat a burger off the floor of a hotel room.

He has sought help for drinking and has reconciled with his daughters.