Dennis Haskins, the actor best known as Principal Richard Belding on Saved by the Bell, died Saturday at 75. Liz Hurley is not part of this story’s facts, but the loss lands hard for a franchise that ran from 1989 to 1993 and still pulls attention decades later.
Jay Schachter said Haskins was his client and dear friend for over 20 years, calling the death "It’s a tragic loss. Everyone loved Mr. Belding, and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more." He added, "He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans. He always had time for them, no matter what."
Richard Belding on NBC
Haskins first played Principal Belding on Good Morning, Miss Bliss before the show was retooled into Saved by the Bell on NBC. He stayed with the role for more than a decade, then reprised it on Saved by the Bell: The New Class, which aired from 1993 to 2000.
That span matters because Haskins was not a one-series guest. He became part of the franchise’s structure, returning when the brand shifted formats and again when the cast was brought back into the same orbit years later.
February 2015 at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
In February 2015, Haskins played Principal Belding one final time in a sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He reunited with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen, which gave the role a late-career coda and showed the character still had enough recognition to anchor a reunion bit.
That same long tail reached beyond TV. Haskins appeared in A Million Ways to Die in the West in 2014 and later turned up on Mad Men, Hot in Cleveland and New Girl, along with I’m Dying Up Here, Robot Chicken and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Parkinson’s disease and the unanswered cause
Schachter said Haskins battled Parkinson’s disease, but no cause of death was given. That leaves the final chapter of his life open on the one fact readers still want most: what caused Dennis Haskins’s death?
Haskins’s career also stretched back to 1979, when he made his onscreen debut on an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, and to 2000, when The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga gave him its Most Distinguished Alumni Award. The same year, he took two USO tours to Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia; in 2002, he went again to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman and Kyrgyzstan, adding a service record to a TV career built on repetition, return visits and recognition that lasted long after the original show ended.
