Dustin Diamond death: Saved By the Bell star dies from cancer aged 44

Dustin Diamond, the actor best known for portraying Samuel “Screech” Powers on beloved NBC sitcom Saved By the Bell, has died aged 44.

Diamond was diagnosed with Stage 4 small-cell carcinoma in early January. 

The actor was hospitalised on 12 January, and died in the morning of Monday, 1 February, a representative for the actor confirmed. Diamond had been complaining of severe body pain and was given a diagnosis of small-cell carcinoma two days later. 

“He’s undergoing chemo so he will be there at least another week and then we will figure out when he gets to come home,” his rep told Entertainment Weekly on 14 January. “By next week, we’ll have a much better understanding of the severity of his condition and what treatments he will need so that he’s comfortable.”

Diamond’s cancer had metastasised in his lungs, though, according to TMZ, and he was unable to recover. He was reportedly taken off respiratory machines as his medical team planned to move him to hospice care.  

"Dustin Diamond was a character in and of himself: an unpredictable spitfire who always left us shocked, but never left us bored," his representative told The Independent. “We are thankful he trusted us enough to share his genuine, authentic self with our team. We wish you knew him in the way that we did. We please ask that you give room for privacy to our team and Mr Diamond’s family during this tragic time, as we grieve and remember the memories spent together. This loss is as much stinging as it is sudden.”

The San Jose native was cast in Saved by the Bell as a fifth grader, when the show was still airing under the title Good Morning, Miss Bliss. NBC relaunched the show in 1989 as a teen sitcom starring Diamond as hapless curly-haired geek Screech, alongside Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Lark Voorhies, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

Saved by the Bell ran through 1993 and relaunched into new iterations such as Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Diamond starred in both; The New Class ran from 1993 to 2000.

After his run on Saved by the Bell, Diamond dealt with a series of personal struggles and scandals, making headlines for a 2006 sex tape and in 2015 was jailed for four months following his involvement in a Wisconsin bar fight.

“The hardest thing about being a child star is giving up your childhood,” the actor said of his child star experience in 2013 on an Oprah: Where Are They Now? special. "You don’t get a childhood, really. You’re a professional and you got to know your lines and rehearse and practice. It was making sure that you were the funniest and the best that you can be because if you weren’t funny, you could be replaced.”

In recent years, Diamond made appearances on Celebrity Fit Club (2007-2008) and Celebrity Big Brother (2013).

After releasing a 2009 tell-all book titled Behind the Bell, which was adapted into a Lifetime TV movie in 2014, Diamond appeared to be on tense terms with his former castmates, with former lead Gosselaar claiming that he did not remember his experiences on the show the way his co-star appeared to.

“It’s like everything that I’ve heard about his book is that it is negative and I don’t remember those things because my experience on the show was very positive," he told the Los Angeles Times.

Shortly after the news of his death, Thiessen, who played Kelly Kapowski on Saved By the Bell, posted a tribute on social media, writing, “I am deeply saddened by I the news of my old co-star @realdustindiamond passing. Life is extremely fragile and it’s something we should never take for granted. God speed Dustin.”

Lopez, who played AC Slater, also posted a tribute to Twitter: “Dustin, you will be missed my man. The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted.  Prayers for your family will continue on...”