Saved By the Bell Cast Remembered Dennis Haskins and Nearly Forty Years Came Pouring Out
Dennis Haskins, the actor behind Mr Belding, has died at age 75.
His Saved by the Bell costars started sharing their reactions within hours of the news.
One tribute from the cast landed harder than anything else being said online.
Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen Remembered the Man Behind Principal Belding
Haskins died on September 29, 2026, according to people close to him, closing out a career that made him one of television's most recognizable school administrators for an entire generation of kids who grew up on Saturday morning reruns.
A cause of death has not been released.
Haskins played Principal Richard Belding on Saved by the Bell, the exasperated, well-meaning school administrator forever chasing down Zack Morris and his friends at the fictional Bayside High.
The role could have typecast him as a punchline.
Instead, the cast that worked alongside him made clear in the days after his death that he was more than the strict principal on their call sheet.
Mario Lopez, who played A.C. Slater, put it simply.
"Heartbroken to hear about my old friend Dennis Haskins," Lopez said.
"He played the principal, but Dennis was the biggest kid on the SBTB set."
Tiffani Thiessen, who played Kelly Kapowski, described him as a steadying presence off camera as much as on it.
"Dennis Haskins was a steady presence in my teenage years, the kind of figure who kept us in line while making sure we knew he was in our corner," Thiessen said.
The Character Started on a Completely Different Show
Belding did not start out as a Saved by the Bell character at all.
Haskins first played him on Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the Disney Channel series NBC later reworked into Saved by the Bell for Bayside High.
He carried the role forward into Saved by the Bell: The New Class, playing the same beloved principal for more than a decade across two different shows.
Along the way, Belding picked up a catchphrase that outlived the show itself: a flustered "Hey, hey, hey!" aimed at whichever student had just wrecked his morning.
Haskins kept working steadily long after Bayside High closed its doors, picking up guest and recurring roles on shows as different from each other as The West Wing, 7th Heaven, Mad Men, New Girl, Hot in Cleveland, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
https://twitter.com/mariolopezviva/status/2104937182817583576
His representative summed up what that range meant to the people who worked with him.
"Everyone loved Mr. Belding, and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more," the statement read.
https://twitter.com/JermaineWatkins/status/2104788034998632871
The Line From Lark Voorhies That Hit Hardest
Lark Voorhies, who played Lisa Turtle, had known Haskins the longest of anyone on that cast, and her tribute cut the deepest.
"Knowing Dennis Haskins for almost 40 years has been one of the truest blessings of my life, which makes losing him hurt so deeply," Voorhies said.
Nearly 40 years is longer than most marriages, longer than most careers, and it started with two young actors on a children's sitcom set who had no idea they were about to become a piece of shared American childhood.
That is the detail that separates this tribute from a standard celebrity statement.
Voorhies was not describing a former coworker.
She was describing four decades of her life.
Fans who grew up watching Bayside High on Saturday mornings are now watching the actors who played their teenage friends bury the man who played their principal, and the grief pouring out of that cast is doing something the show's writers never scripted: reminding an entire generation exactly how long ago Saturday mornings actually were.
Haskins gave millions of kids their first television authority figure who turned out to actually like them.
His cast just told the world, in their own words, that the feeling went both ways off camera too.
Sources:
- "Dennis Haskins Dead: Saved By The Bell Cast Reacts To Death Of Mr. Belding," TVLine, September 2026.
- "Dennis Haskins, Mr. Belding on 'Saved by the Bell,' Dead at 75," Rolling Stone, September 2026.
- "Dennis Haskins, Principal Belding in 'Saved By The Bell,' dies at 75," ABC News, September 2026.
- "Dennis Haskins Cause of Death Not Released After Mr. Belding Actor Dies at 75," Inkl, September 2026.
- "Dennis Haskins, Mr. Belding from 'Saved by the Bell,' dead at 75," Fox News, September 29, 2026.
