Dennis Haskins, Saved by the Bell's Mr. Belding for More Than a Decade, Dies at 75 in California

LOS ANGELES — Dennis Haskins, the actor who played Principal Richard Belding on "Saved by the Bell" and its spinoffs for more than a decade, has died. He was 75.

His agent, Jay Schachter, confirmed the death in a statement Monday. A cause was not released. Local 3 News in Chattanooga, Tennessee, his hometown, reported that he died Sunday in California. ABC News Channel 9 in Chattanooga first carried the news locally.

"It's a tragic loss. Everyone loved Mr. Belding, and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more," Schachter said. "He was a great person, and he loved, I mean absolutely LOVED his fans. He always had time for them, no matter what. He was my client and dear friend for over 20 years, and I will miss him terribly." Some outlets quoted him adding, "I'm heartbroken."

Haskins was born Nov. 18, 1950, in Chattanooga. He graduated from Notre Dame High School and attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he played freshman basketball and booked campus concerts, including Ike and Tina Turner in 1973. He left in the 1970s for entertainment work, first in music as a manager, agent and promoter, then in acting. An early screen credit was "The Dukes of Hazzard."

The role that defined him began in 1988 on the Disney Channel's "Good Morning, Miss Bliss," with Hayley Mills. When NBC retooled the series as "Saved by the Bell," Haskins was one of the few adults carried over. From 1989 to 1993 he was the principal of fictional Bayside High, the foil for Zack Morris and the rest of the Saturday-morning cast. He returned in "Saved by the Bell: The College Years" (1993-94) and then for seven seasons of "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" (1993-2000). Across those series he spent about 13 seasons in the same office.

The character was written as stern and easily outflanked. Audiences remembered the catchphrases and the open-door office more than any plot. Haskins kept meeting those viewers at conventions and karaoke nights long after the original run ended. His last turn as Belding on network television was a 2015 sketch on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and Tiffani Thiessen. He did not appear as Belding in Peacock's later reboot.

Other credits included "Mad Men," "New Girl," "Hot in Cleveland," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "Victorious" and the 2014 film "A Million Ways to Die in the West." He was also a musician. In 2000 he joined two USO tours in Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia, and in 2002 he performed for troops in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman and Kyrgyzstan. He flew with the Blue Angels.

Friends from Dimples, a Los Angeles karaoke bar he frequented, posted that he had been ill for about eight years and had kept a Parkinson's diagnosis private because he did not want the attention. They quoted him asking, "What do I even say?" That tribute is not an official medical statement. Schachter did not list a cause.

He is survived by his son, Dustin.

"Saved by the Bell" was a modest NBC experiment that became a generation's after-school loop. Haskins was the adult who stayed in frame while the teenagers changed. The office, the blazer and the patience with Zack Morris are what most viewers will keep. The agent's note is simpler: he made time for the people who grew up watching him.