Obituary
Actor Dustin Diamond major reason for Saved By The Bell's success
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Former child actor Dustin Diamond (above), best known for playing the nerdy Screech on the American hit television series Saved By The Bell (1989 to 1993), died on Monday, his agent said, weeks after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He was 44.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
NEW YORK • Former child actor Dustin Diamond, best known for playing the nerdy Screech on the American hit television series Saved By The Bell (1989 to 1993), died on Monday, his agent said, weeks after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He was 44.
"He was diagnosed with this brutal, relentless form of malignant cancer only three weeks ago. In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system," his agent Roger Paul said.
"Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful."
Diamond, a California native, launched his career with Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987 to 1989), a series about junior high students that lasted only one season, but which spawned Saved By The Bell.
Diamond's Screech character, along with several others, were transported to the fictional Bayside High School in California in Saved By The Bell, which aired for four seasons starting in 1989.
The light-hearted show, tackling the highs and lows of adolescence, was popular in the United States and abroad.
Diamond's offbeat Samuel "Screech" Powers was the perfect foil for actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar's character Zack Morris.
Even though he was a major reason for the show's success, Diamond's career did not take off afterwards.
Other than some Saved By The Bell spin-offs and made-for-television movies, he worked infrequently in small roles.
In 2009, Diamond's tell-all book Behind The Bell contained some juicy behind-the-scenes tales of the set, but he later admitted it was full of fabricated anecdotes.
In 2015, he was sentenced to four months in prison for carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct in connection with a stabbing at a bar. He was released from jail a month early in 2016 for good behaviour.
In recent years, he has worked as a stand-up comedian and appeared on several reality television shows.
In a 2016 interview on television programme Extra, Diamond said that were he to meet his other former Saved By The Bell castmates, he would "ask for forgiveness for any kind of misunderstandings that may have come about by the book".
He said he had not seen some of his co-stars for decades.
Diamond was repeatedly omitted from reunions.
In 2015, he was left out of a skit that reunited the cast on The Tonight Show and, last year, when Saved By The Bell was rebooted on NBC's Peacock streaming service, he was not part of the new series.
Information about Diamond's survivors was not immediately available.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, NYTIMES
