Former co-stars of late “Saved By The Bell” actor Dustin Diamond are remembering the actor following his untimely death, including series lead Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
Currently starring in both ABC’s “Mixed-ish” and Peacock’s “Saved By The Bell” reboot, Gosselaar, 46, appeared on “Tamron Hall” Tuesday to share his thoughts on Dustin’s sudden passing at the age of 44, telling Hall, “It’s always tough when someone passes away. I think it’s even more so when the individual is someone you know and the age of Dustin. It was only a few weeks ago that we heard about his diagnosis and for it to happen so quickly is shocking.”
Dustin’s team confirmed his cancer diagnosis in mid-January and he started chemotherapy immediately for stage 4 small cell carcinoma that had metastasized to his lungs.
“Myself and the rest of the cast, we will get together at some point and sort of express our feelings, but yeah, it happened so quickly that we’re all just pretty shocked about it,” Gosselaar added.
Save for Diamond, all of the main “SBTB” cast-members returned for Peacock’s 2021 reboot. Gosselaar went on to explain how, over time, the group simply drifted apart over the years.
“It’s interesting. A lot of people may not understand that you can work with somebody for years — you can be very close, you see this person every day for an entire season of shooting and then once things wrap, the camera stops, you just drift apart,” he said. “There’s no reason other than just things happen in life and before you know it, years have passed and I think that was what happened with Dustin with the rest of the cast.”
Fellow co-stars Mario Lopez, Tiffani Thiessen and Elizabeth Berkley have all shared their own tributes to Diamond.