Beloved Saved by the Bell Principal Dies at 75

Dennis Haskins, who spent years shepherding Bayside High's troublemakers as Principal Richard Belding on Saved by the Bell, died Sunday in Burbank, Calif. He was 75. His friend and caretaker Kimberly Snow said Haskins had been living in assisted care since being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease eight years ago, reports the New York Times. "Everyone loved Mr. Belding and those of us who got to know Dennis, loved him even more," his agent, Jay Schachter, said in a statement, per NBC News. "He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans." The Chattanooga, Tenn., native played the oft-vexed but ultimately supportive principal across the show's four-season NBC run from 1989 to 1992, after first inhabiting the role on Disney Channel's short-lived Good Morning, Miss Bliss.

Haskins kept returning to Belding: in two TV movies, Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style and Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas; in one season of Saved by the Bell: The College Years; and in spinoff Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which ran from 1993 through 2000. Outside the Bell universe, he logged guest spots on shows including Mad Men, How I Met Your Mother, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and made his final screen appearance in the 2020 holiday film A Bennett Song Holiday. A onetime student journalist and drama-club regular, he left the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the 1970s to pursue entertainment, then returned in 2015 to finish his theater and speech degree, later donating his Saved by the Bell scripts to the school.