Dustin Diamond was making paltry amounts off syndication residuals for his work on the sitcom Saved by the Bell before his death, according to a TV show.
Dan Block, a friend of the late actor, who died at 44 in 2020 after living with lung cancer, presented evidence of the minuscule sums of money Diamond received on Monday's episode of the Investigation Discovery series Hollywood Demons.
'Here is one for $12.74 and this is from 2002,' Block said of residual checks Diamond received for playing Samuel 'Screech' Powers on the series.
Block, who said he was friends with the actor for the last decade of his life, said that Diamond dealt with financial problems throughout adulthood and told him 'more about how much he made or how much he didn't make.'
Block said that while Diamond claimed to earn up to '$1,250 per week' for his acting efforts, he 'alleged that his parents were stealing his money or taking his money.'
Diamond past made public claims in a similar vein, telling FOX6 Milwaukee in 2015 that the situation surrounding his finances was 'a shame.'
The late Dustin Diamond was making paltry amounts off syndication residuals for his work on Saved by the Bell, according to an Investigation Discovery special
The station reported he said he only had 'a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank' when he turned 18.
'My parents wasted so much of my hard work,' Diamond said. 'A lot of my youth.'
Dustin's father, Mark Diamond, denied the claims on the Investigation Discovery special, saying he was 'upset' when his late son spoke publicly on the issue, and he didn't have a proper platform to respond.
'I told him, "Why are you throwing me under the bus, when I can't pop myself on television and go, 'Uh, no!'" Mark said.
Mark explained how his late son's finances were dispersed, with much of it invested back into his career.
'Dustin's agent would take out her 10-percent commission,' said Mark, who noted that he and his son had reconciled at the time of his passing. 'Anything left over, we had to cover certain things, like taxes, gasoline, obviously, headshots.
'Every fan letter wanted the same things - 'Can you send us an 8x10 picture, autographed?' Thousands of letters. See, we had to pay for that. This didn't leave much money for us to do anything - in fact, nothing.'
Diamond played Samuel 'Screech' Powers on the series from 1989 to 1993
From left, Mario Lopez, Dennis Haskins, Lark Voorhies, Tiffani Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Dustin Diamond in an early 90s cast shot
Diamond was one of the members of the cast of the series during its four-season run from 1989 to 1993, which also included Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley and Lark Voorhies.
Gosselaar said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2019, 'We made really bad deals - poor deals, back then - it is what it is. You move on, you learn; great experience.'
Diamond went on to reprise his role on Saved by the Bell: The College Years from 1993–1994, as well as multiple TV films.
His money problems made headlines in later years, as he orchestrated a T-shirt fundraiser in 2006 to fend off foreclosure of the Wisconsin home he resided in.
The shirts read 'save my house' on the front and 'I paid $15.00 to save Screech's house on the back, as Diamond said he added an e to the character's name to skirt copyright laws, CBS reported at the time.
That same year, in an effort to raise funds, Diamond put out a sex tape titled Screeched, which he later described to Fox5 as 'an opportunistic moment when I was young and dumb.' (He said a body double was used for certain segments.)
Talent manager Denise Simon described the one-sided nature of industry contracts that actors in Diamond's generation were subject to during the 1990s.
Dustin's father Mark Diamond explained his late son's expenses on the Investigation Discovery special
Lark Voorhies' mother Tricia Voorhies added that from the perspective of the child actor's parent, 'You feel fragile and you feel vulnerable' when negotiating with Hollywood execs
'As a 12-year-old, you probably don't have any credits behind you,' Simon said in the ID special. 'Chances are, this is going to be your first big job.
'I've seen deals that are, "This is what we're offering, take it or leave it. And if you leave it, we'll have somebody else." When you're offered your first job, you don't say no.'
Voorhies's mother, Tricia Voorhies, added on the special that from the perspective of the child actor's parent, 'You feel fragile and you feel vulnerable' when negotiating with Hollywood execs.
'You don't feel strong in a position of negotiation,' she said, 'because they are in a position of making a decision that can change your child's life.'
Hollywood Demons can be seen on Investigation Discovery Mondays at 9/8c, and streams after on HBO Max.