Biography

The Bewitched (1964) TV comedy series was originally a vehicle for Broadway star Tammy Grimes as the lovely witch Samantha. She had recently scored in the Broadway musical comedy "High Spirits," based on the Noël Coward play "Blithe Spirit," in which she played the deceased Elvira, who comes back to haunt her former husband. Dick Sargent was chosen to play her mortal mate Darrin Stephens. When Grimes passed on the series, Elizabeth Montgomery was cast in the role. By that time, Sargent had other acting commitments and was forced to bow out of the pilot. York came into the picture after Richard Crenna of The Real McCoys (1957) fame turned the role down. Of course, Sargent wound up replacing York as Darrin in 1969, after York suffered a seizure on the set and was rushed to the hospital. He never returned to the show, and the "second Darrin Stephens" was never explained.

During the filming of They Came to Cordura (1959), Dick was seriously injured during a railroad handcar scene. He and Gary Cooper were propelling a handcar down a railroad track with other men when he accidentally lifted the mechanism without his comrades' help and wrenched his back, tearing the muscles along the right side of his back. For him it was the beginning of the end. He grew addicted to painkillers and struggled valiantly another decade before retiring in 1969.

Developed emphysema after years of smoking three packs of cigarettes a day and became dependent on oxygen tanks in his last years. Died of complications from emphysema at a Grand Rapids, Michigan, hospital.

Was left impoverished in 1976 after a real estate investment failed, and was on welfare for a time.

Started a charity called "Acting for Life". He spent most of his time on the telephone raising money for the homeless and getting people to donate food and clothing.

You know, three whales get in trouble and people from all over volunteer to help. Wouldn't it be wonderful if one old has-been actor with a hose up his nose could help millions?

I have done more in this chair here than I could have ever done in Hollywood.

I don't work because I love it. In our household, work is something Daddy does to provide us with things we need for our physical comforts . . . I love other things more than my work.

[Of his seizure that caused him to end his best-known role on Bewitched (1964)]: I was too sick to go on. I had a temperature of 105, full of strong antibiotics, for almost 10 days. I went to work that day but I was sick. I lay in my dressing room after being in make-up, waiting to be called on the set. They knew I was feeling pretty rotten, and they tried to give me time to rest. I kept having chills. This was the middle of the summer and I was wearing a sheepskin jacket and I was chilling. I was shaking all over. Then, while sitting on a scaffolding with Maurice Evans, being lit for a special effects scene: They were setting an inky - that's a little tiny spot[light] that was supposed to be just flickering over my eyes. That flickering, flickering flickering made me feel weird. And I'm sitting on this platform up in the air...and I turned to Gibby, who was just down below, and I said, 'Gibby, I think I have to get down.' He started to help me down and that's the last thing I remember until I woke up on the floor. That's about all I remember of the incident...and I'd managed to bite a very large hole in the side of my tongue before they could pry my teeth apart.

[Just before his death]: I am happy, complete. I know that you've known me a very longtime, I've been on television, I've been in your living rooms and now I'm in your heart!