by Conan Simmons – February 6, 2021 – 6:13 pm
Born January 7, 1977 in San Jose, California Dustin Diamond gained fame appearing as Samuel “Screech” Powers on the Saturday morning series, ‘Saved by the Bell’. He passed away earlier this week, on February 1, in Florida from carcinoma at age 44.
Dustin Diamond made his debut as a voice actor on 1987’s ‘Yogi’s Great Escape’ and his feature film debut in the 1988 comedy sequel, ‘Big Top Pee-Wee’. That same year he also appeared in the family film, ‘Purple People Eater’ alongside a cast that included Ned Beatty, Shelley Winters, Neil Patrick Harris, Chubby Checker, Little Richard and Thora Birch. He would also appear in the 1989 comedy ‘She’s Out of Control’ starring Tony Danza along with Wallace Shawn and Matthew Perry.
In 1988, Dustin Diamond landed the role he would forever be associated with, that of Samuel “Screech” Powers, on the Saturday morning kids show ‘Good Morning, Miss Bliss’. After the first season the show was revamped and retitled as ‘Saved by the Bell’ with only a few cast members staying with the show. The series was a big hit and lasted until 1992. ‘Saved by the Bell’ was followed by several sequel series and spinoff tv movies, Dustin Diamond reprised his character in nearly all.
Diamond also made appearances on other popular television series in 1990, a couple of times on the Fred Savage hit ‘The Wonder Years’ and the sequel series, ‘The Munsters Today’ which starred Lee Meriwether and ran from 1987 to 1991, though Dustin Diamond only appeared in one episode in 1990.
As the ‘Saved by the Bell’ series spinoffs ran down, Dustin Diamond began struggling against typecasting from playing the “Screech” character for so many years. In 1999 he made an appearance in a music video for the popular boy band 98 Degrees.
In the 2000’s Dustin Diamond appeared in a few comedy’s, often playing himself and cast as a former child star. The 2002 Frankie Muniz comedy ‘Big Fat Liar’ costarring Paul Giamatti and Amanda Bynes was the first of a few big screen features. Others were ‘Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star’ with David Spade in 2003 and, in the same year, ‘Pauly Shore is Dead’.
Diamond continued in voice acting in the 2000’s with parts on the popular animated series ‘Duck Dodgers’ in 2005 and ‘Robot Chicken’ in 2008.
Most of the decade saw Dustin Diamond appearing in reality television series, a refuge for actors experiencing troubled patches in their careers. Some of the reality shows he appeared on were ‘Celebrity Fit Club’ and ‘Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Wrestling’.
Scandal overtook his career in 2006 upon the release of a sex tape (an almost common thing for struggling celebrities in that decade) and a tell-all book about the behind the scenes shenanigans of ‘Saved by the Bell’, which permanently ended his tenure with the still ongoing franchise. Scandal continued to plague him in 2014 when he got into a bar fight that resulted in him stabbing another man.
Dustin Diamond continued acting in lower budget fare, such as the 2009 direct to video ‘American Pie Presents: The Book of Love’.
In the mid-2010’s Diamond would act in several low budget horror thrillers. He acted alongside Eric Roberts, Robert Loggia and Charles Durning in 2014’s ‘Scavenger Killers’. He reteamed with Robert Loggia and Charles Durning along with horror icon Tony Todd in 2015’s ‘Bleeding Hearts’. His final film was 2016’s controversial ‘Joker’s Wild’ with Eric Roberts.
Dustin Diamond was married to Jennifer Misner from 2009 until their divorce in 2014.
In early 2006, Dustin Diamond was attached to star in a low budget horror film I was producing. Ultimately, the financing never came together and the project was dropped. In my few conversations with him he was always a genuinely nice guy. R.I.P.