The Chattanooga native played the Bayside High principal from “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” through “The New Class”
Dennis Haskins, the actor best known as Principal Richard Belding on the hit sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” has died at 75, his agent confirmed to ABC News. His longtime agent, Jay Schachter, called it “a tragic loss.” He said Haskins loved his fans and always made time for them. No cause of death has been released.
Haskins died Sunday in California, according to a personal friend. A friend and caretaker told NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga that he had Parkinson’s disease, though an official cause has not been confirmed.
Dimples, a Burbank karaoke bar he frequented for years, posted a tribute on Instagram. The bar said he became ill about eight years ago and kept his fight with Parkinson’s private because he did not want the attention. The bar dated his death to Sunday, Sept. 27, adding that he was “probably entertaining the people in the sky.”
Bayside’s principal, through every class
Haskins first played Belding on the Disney Channel’s “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” in 1988. The show was relaunched as “Saved by the Bell” the next year and became one of the defining sitcoms of the 1990s. The series aired on NBC from August 1989 to May 1993, with Haskins as the principal trying to keep order at the fictional Bayside High.
His character’s signature line, “Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?”, was usually aimed at Zack Morris, A.C. Slater and Screech Powers. His castmates included Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez.
After the original series ended, he played Belding again in “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” which ran from 1993 to 2000. He also appeared in two TV movies, 1992’s “Hawaiian Style” and 1994’s “Wedding in Las Vegas,” in which Zack and Kelly finally married. His last turn as Belding came in 2015, when he joined Gosselaar, Berkley, Lopez and Thiessen for a “Saved by the Bell” sketch on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
A long career beyond Bayside
Before “Saved by the Bell,” Haskins guest-starred on ’70s and ’80s series including “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “CHiPs,” “Knots Landing,” “Magnum, P.I.” and “The Twilight Zone.” Later he appeared on “The West Wing,” “The Practice,” “JAG” and “7th Heaven,” and more recently on “Mad Men,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “New Girl” and “Hot in Cleveland.” His film work included “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” In 2017 he appeared in music videos for Dirty Heads’ “Vacation” and Khalid’s “Young Dumb & Broke.”
Chattanooga roots, and a degree at 65
Haskins was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Nov. 18, 1950. He attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Notre Dame High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In college he wrote for the student newspaper and acted with the Drama Club. He also helped found the Harlequins community theater group. As student government entertainment chairman, he helped bring Ike and Tina Turner to campus in 1973. Through the Blue Key honor fraternity, he also helped organize a yearly basketball game that raised scholarship money for the children of UTC and Chattanooga police officers.
After being cut from the University of Tennessee’s freshman basketball team in Knoxville, he walked on at UTC and lasted the full season
Haskins left UTC a few credits short of a degree before landing the role that made him famous. Decades later, at 65, he finished the coursework and earned a bachelor’s degree in theater and speech in December 2015. In a statement at the time, he said that despite his success, there had always been “something missing for me — mcollege degree.
” He donated his personal working scripts from every episode of the show to the UTC library.
Information on survivors and memorial arrangements had not been released as of early Tuesday.
