Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Tiffani Thiessen share tributes to the late Dustin Diamond
Aux Features Mario Lopez
Dustin Diamond died on Monday from stage 4 lung cancer, leaving behind a troubled legacy that includes a sex tape scandal and a scandalous tell-all book about his former Saved By The Bell castmates that he later revealed was filled with made-up stories. He’s since expressed regret over both of those projects, and the Bayside crew doesn’t appear to hold any hard feelings. A number of them have surfaced in the wake of his passing to share some kind words in his memory.
“Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dustin Diamond, a true comedic genius,” Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris on the series, wrote on Twitter on Monday. “My sincere condolences to his family and friends. Looking back at our time working together, I will miss those raw, brilliant sparks that only he was able to produce. A pie in your face, my comrade.”
Tiffani Thiessen, Bayside’s Kelly Kapowski, shared a tribute to Instagram. “I am deeply saddened by the news of my old co-star @realdustindiamond passing,” she wrote. “Life is extremely fragile and it’s something we should never take for granted. God speed Dustin.”
After learning of Diamond’s diagnosis a few weeks back, Lark Voorhees, who played Lisa Turtle, took to Instagram with some words of encouragement. “I’d like to take the time to send special love and special best wishes to Dustin Diamond, who is one of my dearest friends,” she wrote. “Dustin, all the many in your close circle who know you to be the great person that you are, are truly pulling for you and praying for the best outcome.”
“Dustin, you will be missed my man,” said Mario Lopez, who helps lead the new reboot as A.C. Slater. “The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted. Prayers for your family will continue on…”
Lopez elaborated on his tribute in an interview with Variety. “I actually just spoke with him a couple of weeks ago. He was reluctant to go in [to the hospital] for a while because he didn’t know if anything was going to get out. And I said, ‘Bro, that’s foolish, you’ve got to get in there and take care of yourself and forget what people are saying.’ Some people thought his illness was a joke, which is awful, but the internet always spills tales. When all of this was happening, I was optimistic that he would make a recovery, but it was obviously too late.”
He also took a moment to credit Diamond’s contributions to Saved By The Bell. “He was an integral part of the chemistry and the comedy, and I don’t know if it would have worked without him,” he said.
Lopez added that there was hope that Diamond would guest on the second season of Peacock’s Saved By The Bell reboot. “Now I’m really going to push for some sort of tribute,” he says. “I would love a whole episode dedicated to some of his most iconic moments or something like that. We have a lot of very creative minds who can try to figure it out, but I haven’t had those conversations yet.”
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Dustin Diamond died on Monday from stage 4 lung cancer, leaving behind a troubled legacy that includes a sex tape scandal and a scandalous tell-all book about his former Saved By The Bell castmates that he later revealed was filled with made-up stories.
Making up scandals about castmates? Sounds like he was a piece of shit. Did you forget that he stabbed a guy in a bar fight on Christmas, too?
Mario Lopez, who helps lead the new reboot
He never seemed to come to terms with playing Screech. I hope he found some peace before passing.
And just like the Bayside graduation, no mention of Tori Scott.
At least they mentioned her in the reboot! Once!
Who?
Tori was a character introduced in I think the last season of SBTB. For a decent chunk of the season, Kelly and Jessie were absent. Tori was added to replace both of them.I never knew why all that went down, but after looking it up they added more episodes to the season late in production. By that point, Thiessen and Berkley were attached to other projects, so Tori was created. The Tori episodes were spread throughout the season I guess to make it seem like all 3 characters were at the school at the same time.
Is this not the strangest death announcement and condolences ever? The announcement acknowledged that people may have rightfully thought him a shithead based on his choices, and the condolences are sort of perfunctory and not glowing? Kind of odd, but also refreshing that his misdeeds aren’t being immediately whitewashed like every other celebrity after death—Kobe Bryant being the most recent.
It is weird, but I think largely because it shows that there was a bit of a resolution to his story that we never saw. He seemed to make peace with the demons that put kind of a rift between him and others, and it seems like that worked and mended some bridges; while I don’t know if I entirely bought most of those posts made by his castmates, I at least believe Mario Lopez’s, and that leads to me believing the rest, too.
Diamond had burnt bridges that had him estranged from any kind of reunion for years. That’s why he wasn’t invited (along with Dennis Haskins) to the 2015 event on Fallon. Still, the interview with Lopez (which provided the picture Lopez posted) was in 2016. At this point, Diamond looked like he was really cleaning up his act and had started making amends. Notice that he stopped making the news like he did before (the assault, the bankruptcy, etc.). That may have not been enough to have everybody comfortable around him, but I guess they can reminisce at least fondly about what he brought to the show
Haskins was in the Fallon reunion! Lark Voorhies wasn’t, but Belding was there.
Why wasn’t Dennis Haskins invited? I remember when he was on Mad Men!
Haskins was there!!! Ugh, stupid gray comment nonsense. Mr. Belding was totally part of that sketch.
Thanks!I hope that ungreyed you.
It’s actually nice to read his former castmates speaking about him graciously. They’re all adults now, probably know better what he came out of, and had accepted his apologies.
Reading the gracious condolences makes me think that maybe they had come to some understanding. It’s kind of touching after all he went through and did to others. I certainly did not expect to get so emotional over the passing of Dustin Diamond.
My opinion of Diamond over the years has been weird. Loved him as a kid, then hated him as an adult when I learned he was kind of a jerk to everyone. Scandals came out that reinforced my opinion. But somewhere I made this connection between him and the actors who played Jar Jar Binks and little Anakin Skywalker. Heaps of “fans” giving these people crap for a character they played and refusing to just let these people live the normal lives most of us take for granted. It’s no wonder he turned out the way he did! Hell, I probably would’ve been even worse if I’d lived his life. After that I just felt bad for the guy.
Sucks that he died so young. It’s especially tragic that it happened as he was making amends with these people he’s known all his life. But I am happy that things were turning around. Not just that Diamond was trying to make amends, but also that his former costars were receptive to it.
Hollywood is a very very strange terrain to navigate. Some actors who worked steadily as children and teens are able to spend the rest of their lives in their profession, like Hayley Mills (the original star of the show when it was “Good Morning, Miss Bliss) or Jodie Foster; others say, “That was fun, but I’m having a normal life now.” Too many others are never able to get their footing as adults, personally or professionally. The nature of the industry is that you never never know what is going to come next, no matter how big you are.
I’m a big fan of Haley Joel Osment’s arc where he makes a huge splash as a frighteningly great child actor, leaves the spotlight for a few years, and comes back as a laid-back character actor in weird, smaller projects.
well, Hollywood is one of the few areas where there is even a such thing as children actually working. I think it is rather amazing that any child star grows up not completely messed up. Kids should not have adult responsibilities and be making money. It is way too much to handle and too much responsibility. Add to it that once you are an adult the people who stick with it now have to compete in a larger pool with other adults who look better than you and are more talented, you can be forever known for something you did as a kid can really mess you up. For every Jodie Foster or Joseph Gordon Levitt there is a Dustin Diamond or Lindsay Lohan
I can’t imagine how he must have hated being associated with such a character for his whole life. It must have been hard. I didn’t realize how young he was when the show started.
He was essentially asked to play the same character in real life, in that he was years younger than his costars and was made to play the ‘nerd’. Obviously he had his transgressions as an adult, but imagine the alienation that must have caused. It’s sad that he seemed very close to making amends with the whole thing.
Somewhat separately, one thing I always found kind of touching was how close he was with Lark Voorhies. I’m not suggesting that the other (albeit teenaged) castmates bullied him, but it seems like she was the real friend he got out of it.
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