Dustin Diamond - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

This page uses content from the Dustin Diamond biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Biography

Early life

Dustin was born January 7, 1977 in San Jose, California. He was enrolled in Daniels Chapel AME Zion Elementary in Anaheim, California. His first job involved working as a living mannequin in a department store display. He later auditioned for a role in the cult classic Cool as Ice but was rejected because he was too young. He was given a smaller role, but his scenes were cut from the movie. He also appeared briefly in Big Top Pee-wee.

Career

Screech from Saved by the Bell

Dustin Diamond's most memorable role was that of Samuel "Screech" Powers on the television show Saved by the Bell, a role he played for close to thirteen years, from its beginning as Good Morning, Miss Bliss through its final incarnation as Screech Powers on Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

Screech was originally supposed to have an extremely low pitched, almost bellowing voice, but instead it was decided that the character would possess a high adenoid, although not over the top tone instead. The show originally aired on The Disney Channel under the Good Morning, Miss Bliss title ( Saved By the Bell), featuring Hayley Mills in the titular role. After a year, the show was brought over to NBC and repackaged into its more well-known incarnation. Of all the show's characters, only Screech, Zack Morris, Lisa Turtle, and Mr. Belding made the jump from JFK Junior High in Indiana, to Bayside High in Palisades, California, although the incredibly abrupt change in venue was never acknowledged, much less explained, possibly it was just a new show with no relations to Miss Bliss.

Screech was more often than not a pivotal figure in the schemes and pranks of the Bayside gang, from pretending to be an alien (which almost resulted in his dissection at the hands of the government), to getting kidnapped by rival high school Valley in the ongoing inter-school "Prank War", and in one instance even winning the "Miss Bayside" Pageant, in spite of an impressive drum solo performed by A.C. Slater. His parents, who were extremely obsessed with all things Elvis-related, were never seen, aside from one episode where his mother (played by Ruth Buzzi) leaves him in charge of the house as his parents went on a vacation to Graceland, which naturally led to an episode spanning dilemma involving a broken Elvis statue.

Screech's robot Kevin is also occasionally shown in some episodes but was eventually dropped from the cast after making a racially off-color comment aimed at Lisa Turtle, and Screech makes numerous references to his insect and animal collections. He has also been shown dressing up as (and dancing like) Michael Jackson, impersonating Zack on numerous occasions, and stereotypically portraying a Native American for Zack's school project. He claims to be descended from the "Great Italian lover and spy", Luigi Powerelli, making it clear that he is part Italian. In the final episode of the regular series, he willingly relinquishes the title of valedictorian to Jessie Spano because he knows how much it meant to her.

Continuing the series into college, Saved by the Bell: The College Years shows most of the cast transplanted into not only the same college, but also the same college dormitory. The most notable of Screech's actions in this series involves him stealing a canister of nitrous oxide from the chemistry lab, in order to gain acceptance from other students attending a rave after Slater belittles him about being a screwup. As fate would have it, Screech accidentally brought a can of Helium, and only the students' voices ended up getting high.

After the end of that series, he quickly returned to Bayside High as Mr. Belding's assistant in The New Class episodes, remaining with the show until its cancellation.

On April 19, 2006, the official website for Adult Swim announced that Saved by the Bell was going back into production, with the original first series characters (save for Elizabeth Berkley) becoming the new staff of Bayside High. Screech would be the principal according to the report. However, it was all a hoax, playing on the reactions to the recent series airings.

Appearances after Saved by the Bell

Diamond has kept busy professionally since the popular teenager sitcom was cancelled. He has been featured on a number of TV shows, including The Weakest Link, and has participated in a celebrity boxing contest, and professional wrestling matches. Of special note is his appearance on Celebrity Boxing, where he mercilessly pummeled an irate Ron Palillo, of Welcome Back, Kotter fame. Concerning his reaction to his decisive victory in the bout, Diamond claimed to have "...beaten Horshack like I was Soda Popinski".

He also has released a video entitled Dustin Diamond Teaches Chess where he shows various techniques for becoming a better chess player. It is punctuated by hammy, over the top performances by Dustin, often dressed in various costumes, such as dressing as Screech. In 2000, he made a guest appearance on short-lived WB Network comedy, Off Centre.

His appearance on the June 7, 2002 edition of The Opie and Anthony Show (with co-guest Jim Gaffigan), was widely considered to be the worst episode of the radio program ever. Although Diamond was not entirely blamed for the show's poor quality, he was far and away the person who was subjected most to malicious harassment by callers.

Diamond has a cameo appearance as himself in the movie Made, where Vince Vaughn's character incredulously questions a doorman at a club as to why "Screech" was allowed into the venue while he was not. Diamond also appeared in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star as himself as well. He is only shown in a few scenes (when Dickie is hanging out with a bunch of former child stars in an apartment and at Dickie's sitcom rehearsal).

In the May 2006 issue of Stuff magazine the readers voted Diamond the 3rd most annoying former child actor that they would like to punch in the face. He was beaten by former child stars Danny Bonaduce and Corey Feldman.

Diamond plays Bernardo in Hamlet A.D.D.(2007), a partially animated science fiction comedy based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Bernardo, the first character to appear in the film, is haunted by the ghost of Hamlet's dead father.

Salty The Pocketknife

Diamond was a bass player in the band Salty The Pocketknife. The band is rumored to have disbanded, and to have been sued by its label for failing to adequately promote itself.

Stand-up comedian

Dustin has been a stand-up comedian for some years. His comic style is very reminiscent to that of Bob Saget, referencing his sitcom years as well as using very blue humor in his stage act. He has met with some controversy regarding the authenticity of his joke-writing, and it is widely rumored among stand-up comedy circles that Diamond "borrows" jokes and material from other working comedians. Diamond's stand-up has been treated with scorn by many in the stand-up community, who have created "anti-Screech" websites, such as screechsucks.com.

Personal life

dustindiamond.com

In 2003, Diamond attempted to take control of the domain dustindiamond.com, which was owned by Max Goldberg, the creator of YTMND. Diamond was apparently upset because some visitors were posting gay fantasies about him in the guestbook on dustindiamond.com. Diamond's lawyer, Herro & Lamont, LLC, served Goldberg with a cease and desist order that was unsuccessful.

In 2004, the case was submitted to the National Arbitration Forum acting on behalf of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Diamond ultimately lost the suit. The decision read, in part, "The Panel accepts Respondent’s argument that the “outrageous ugly and low-tech graphics and numerous errors and misspellings” as well as the sheer absurdity of the site’s claim that Dustin Diamond is a “FAMOUS SUPERSTAR AND SEX SYMBOL” clearly signal that the site is not meant to be taken seriously. Whether the site is regarded as parody, satire, or critical commentary, and notwithstanding Respondent’s assertion that “[l]awyers are notoriously bad at understanding how humor works,” this Panel finds that legitimate noncommercial fair use commentary is involved."

The precedent-setting decision is believed to be the first time that a celebrity has lost a domain name dispute to a non-commercial parody site.[1]

Debt

On June 11, 2006, Diamond appeared on the Dean Blundell show in Toronto on 102.1 The edge revealing he was in fact "broke" and was facing foreclosure by a lender, as bad credit prevented him from getting a mortgage from a bank.

On June 13, 2006, Diamond appeared on The Howard Stern Show. Diamond said he was given 30 days to come up with $250,000 USD or risk losing his Port Washington, Wisconsin home for failing to make payments on his land lease. Diamond said he blamed Arthur Giraldo who works for New York Capital Exchange, a mortgage broker who Diamond claims "screws over the working man then laughs at their expense"[2]. He decided to sell t-shirts for $15 that had "I gave 15 dollars to help Screeech [sic] save his house" emblazoned on the front. He said that he would need to sell 30,000 t-shirts to completely cover the costs. He explained the extra 'e' in Screeech was needed because of copyright laws, for he does not own the rights to the name or character.

On June 14, 2006, Diamond did a phone interview with MTV Live the flagship show for MTV Canada promoting the sale of his "D-Shirts" to save his home.

In June 2006, Dustin appeared on "The Hamish and Andy Show", an Australian (Melbourne based) radio station. His phone interview was due to a contest conducted by the two hosts of the radio show called "Where the Bloody Hell Are They Now?", which consists of a race between the two to find ex-celebrities. Diamond was one celebrity, Vanilla Ice was the other. During the interview, Dustin was asked what had his life become after fame and what he was up to at that moment. He appealed to listeners to buy his T-shirts online from his website, www.getdshirts.com, to help him save his house, and anyone who bought a "D-shirt" would also get it personally autographed for an extra $5.

On August 14, 2006, Diamond was scheduled for an online television telethon, in an effort to raise funds to prevent the foreclosure on his house. His broadcast was cancelled less than 90 minutes before it was to be aired live, as an executive at the startup online television network claimed that the foreclosure story lacked credibility, and that Diamond had "exhibited some really strange and obnoxious behavior." [3]

On September 2, 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reporter Mike Nichols posted an article making unsubstantiated claims that Diamond was a fraud and the whole story about Diamond losing his house was a publicity stunt. On October 7, he added a follow up article with interviews of people who had not recieved t-shirts after months of waiting, corroborating the alleged fraudulence.

His website claims that appreciation of his real estate resulted in his large debt. Usually the lessee of a mortgage still owns the real estate and merely uses it as collateral, thus benefiting from any appreciation. If Diamond must buy back his land at the request of his landlord, his situation would be better classified as eviction under the terms of a very harsh lease.

Sex tape

On September 27, 2006, the New York Daily News reported the existence of a sex tape with Diamond in it. According to the story, the tape features Dustin having a threesome, is 40 minutes long and has been tentatively titled Saved by the Smell, Screech and Sniff or Diamond in the Buff, due to the alleged performance of lewd sexual acts being given by Dustin. Diamond, who had his agent speak for him, mentioned that he was trying to obliterate the 'Screech' typecasting. It was later discovered that his agent spoke without first consulting his client.Piazza, Jo. "Porn star's name may ring a 'Bell'", New York Daily News, September 27, 2006.

On November 6th, 2006, Dustin Diamond's sex tape, Screeched, was released by Red Light District. It features Dustin Diamond having sex with two women and giving one of them a Dirty Sanchez.

Select filmography

Hamlet A.D.D. (2007) ... Bernardo
Screeched (2006) ... Himself
13th Grade (2005) ... Corey
Duck Dodgers (2005) TV Episode (voice) ... Xainius the Eternal
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003) ... Himself
The Rerun Show (2002) TV Episode ... Doctor
Big Fat Liar (2002) ... Wolf Party Guest
Jane White Is Sick & Twisted (2002) ... Simone
Made (2001) ... Himself
Longshot (2000) ... Waiter
The Toolbox (1999) ... Thaddeus
Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas (1994) (TV) ... Samuel "Screech" Powers
Saved by the Bell: The College Years ... Samuel "Screech" Powers
Getting By ... Episode: "Pinball Wizard" (1993) TV Episode
Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1993) TV Series ... Samuel "Screech" Powers
Saved by the Bell ... Samuel "Screech"' Powers
Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style (1992) (TV) ... Samuel "Screech" Powers
The Munsters Today (1990) TV Episode ... Rob
The Wonder Years (1989-1990) TV Episode ... Joey
She's Out of Control (1989) ... Kid on the Beach
Purple People Eater (1988) ... Big Z
Big Top Pee-wee (1988) ... Child - Deke
It's a Living (1987) TV Episode ... A Young Sonny
Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987) TV Series ... Samuel "Screech" Powers
The Price of Life (1987) ... Young Stiles

References

External links

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