Dennis Haskins, the actor who played the exasperated but soft-hearted Principal Richard Belding on “Saved by the Bell,” has died at 75.
His agent, Jay Schachter, announced the death Monday. No cause was given. “Everyone loved Mr. Belding,” Schachter said, “and those of us who got to know Dennis loved him even more.” He described Haskins as an actor who made time for fans no matter what, and as a client and friend for over 20 years.
Haskins first played Belding on the Disney Channel’s “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” in 1988. The series was retooled a year later as NBC’s “Saved by the Bell,” with Haskins as the only adult in the regular cast. The show ran from 1989 to 1993 and became one of the defining teen sitcoms of the decade. He returned as Belding for “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” which ran until 2000, and appeared in two TV movies, “Hawaiian Style” in 1992 and “Wedding in Las Vegas” in 1994. His catchphrase, “Hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?”, followed him for the rest of his career.
Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Haskins studied at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he wrote for the student newspaper and helped found a community theater group called the Harlequins. He made his screen debut in 1979 on “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
Belding was not his only television work, though it defined him for fans. Haskins later appeared on “Magnum, P.I.,” “Mad Men,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “New Girl” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and in the film “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” He put on the principal’s suit one last time in 2015, when he joined Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffani Thiessen for a “Tonight Show” sketch. He released a karaoke album in 2009 and appeared in music videos for Dirty Heads and Khalid in 2017.
Tributes emphasized the man behind the role. Dimples, the Los Angeles karaoke bar Haskins frequented for years, called him a staple of the place and said he was much more than Mr. Belding. A regional high school academic decathlon carries his name.
