Mario Lopez paid tribute to his former “Saved by the Bell” co-star Dustin Diamond who lost his battle to stage 4 lung cancer at the age of 44 on Monday.
Lopez, who first met Diamond on the set of "Saved by the Bell" in the late 1980s, said that although he knew Diamond was sick, his death came as a shock, Variety reported.
“From when I found out he was sick to his passing, it’s been incredibly quick. It’s so fresh, it’s incredibly hard to process. And it’s shocking because he was so young; he was only 44. I honestly thought, ‘There’s no way [he won’t make it]. It sucks, but he’ll bounce back,'” Lopez said.
On Monday, Diamond’s reps told TMZ that his condition had greatly declined since last week, and he was taken off breaking machines in an attempt to get to hospice care.
Lopez, age 47, told Variety that Diamond "was like a fun, goofy little brother" and said the late actor played an integral role in the classic sitcom.
“He was iconic,” Lopez said. “In general, his little looks and facial expressions and voice and the way it cracked, it was just the quintessential goofy, lovable fun nerd [character] and it really resonated with the kids. And that was all him; he was kind of like Screech in real life.”
Lopez said that Diamond “was an integral part of the chemistry and the comedy,” adding, “I don’t know if it would have worked without him.”
Lopez recently starred in and worked as a producer for the first season of Peacock’s reboot.
“We were really hoping he’d make an appearance on Season 2,” Lopez says. “Now I’m really going to push for some sort of tribute. I would love a whole episode dedicated to some of his most iconic moments or something like that. We have a lot of very creative minds who can try to figure it out, but I haven’t had those conversations yet.”
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