Because if you weren’t funny, you could be replaced.” You have to know your lines and rehearse and practice, making sure you are the funniest and the best you can be. You don’t get a childhood, really,” he said in a Where Are They Now? interview for OWN in 2013. “The hardest thing about being a child star is giving up your childhood. When the last episode aired, Diamond was 23. Viewers watched Diamond grow up before their eyes as he continued as the chess-loving Screech on Saved by the Bell, which lasted four seasons (1989-93), Saved by the Bell: The College Years (one primetime season, 1993-94) and Saved by the Bell: The New Class (seven seasons, 1994-2000), all on NBC. When he was 11 and in the fifth grade, Diamond beat out 5,000 other hopefuls in 1988 to land the role of Samuel “Screech” Powers on the Disney Channel comedy Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the forerunner to Saved by the Bell. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. “In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system the only mercy it exhibited was its sharp and swift execution,” Paul said in a statement. The actor was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer three weeks ago and was receiving treatments at a Florida hospital. The cause of death was carcinoma, his rep, Roger Paul, told The Hollywood Reporter. Dustin Diamond, who spent 13 seasons as the goofy nerd Screech on the Saturday morning sitcom Saved by the Bell and its various iterations before his life and career took a turn for the worse, died Monday.