Former co-stars of the late “Saved By The Bell” actor Dustin Diamond remember the actor after his untimely death, including series leader Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
Gosselaar, 46, currently starred in both ABC’s “Mixed-ish” and Peacock’s “Saved By The Bell” reboot, and appeared on “Tamron Hall” on Tuesday to voice his thoughts on Dustin’s sudden death at the age of 44, and said Hall: always difficult when someone dies. I think it’s even more so if the individual is someone you know and Dustin’s age. It’s been just a few weeks since we heard about his diagnosis and it’s shocking to see it happening so quickly. “
Dustin’s team confirmed his cancer diagnosis in mid-January, and he immediately began chemotherapy for stage 4 small cell carcinoma that had spread to his lungs.
“Myself and the rest of the cast, we’ll get together at some point and express our feelings, but yeah, it happened so quickly we’re all pretty shocked about it,” added Gosselaar.
With the exception of Diamond, all of the major “SBTB” cast members returned for the 2021 restart of Peacock. Gosselaar went on to explain how the group simply drifted apart over the years.
“It’s interesting. A lot of people may not understand that you can work with someone for years – you can be really close, you see this person shooting every day for a whole season and once things are done, the camera stops and you just float apart, ”he said. “There’s no other reason than just things happen in life and before you know it years have passed and I think that’s what happened to 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.