Dick Sargent Biography

Fast Facts

• His mother was a silent film actor, and his father was a World War I veteran and Hollywood business manager (whose clients included Douglas Fairbanks)
• While struggling to begin a career as an actor, he held a number of odd jobs, including digging ditches and doing a stint with an import-export company in Mexico
• The original choice to play Darrin Stephens on Bewitched, he ultimately took over the role in 1969 when Dick York was forced to leave the sitcom for health reasons
• To explain his unmarried status early in his career, he claimed to be a divorcé in studio biographies, but eventually went public as a gay man on National Coming Out Day in 1991
• In 1992, he shared Grand Marshal duties with friend and former Bewitched costar Elizabeth Montgomery for a gay-pride parade in Los Angeles
• Charitable pursuits included the Special Olympics and the American Foundation for AIDS Research
• Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1989, to which he succumbed on July 8, 1994