Dick Sargent

Gangly actor with a nervous, anxious quality and a good sense of comedy, remembered for his work in TV comedies of the 1960s and early 70s, especially as the perennially frazzled spouse of nose-twitching wife-cum-witch Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) on the popular sitcom "Bewitched". Sargent began appearing in light feature fare in the late 1950s including the teen comedy, "Bernardine" (1957) and the Pat Boone musical, "Mardi Gras" (1958). He sometimes played in dramas like "Captain Newman M.D." (1963) but more typically Sargent was cast in supporting roles in "That Touch of Mink" (1962), "Fluffy" (1965) and "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966) as gawky small-towners, well-meaning but ineffectual types and comically tense businessmen.

Feature work picked up for Sargent during the 60s but some of his best-remembered work came in sitcoms during this time. "The Tammy Grimes Show" (1966) only lasted four episodes, but he played it likably straight on the "McHale's Navy" spin-off, "Broadside" (1964-65). "Bewitched" would guarantee Sargent his modest niche in popular memory. It is to his credit that his Darrin was an eminently suitable replacement given that the role had already been stamped so indelibly by Dick York, who left the series due to illness.

Now that he possessed that great TV actor asset-- recognizability--Sargent was able to keep busy in guest spots on a wide range of TV series, as well as in TV-movies including the pilot for "Fantasy Island" (1977), "The Gossip Columnist" (1980) and "Acting on Impulse" (1993). He also successfully returned to features, admittedly minor ones like "The Clonus Horror" (1979), but often with prominent roles. One of his most amusing feature roles was as the father of a "Teen Witch" in that 1989 film (which also featured a character named Serena, Samantha's naughty cousin in "Bewitched"). Late in life Sargent gained media attention in his 60s when, on 1991's National Coming Out Day, he announced that he was gay, and for the rest of his life was proud to be labeled a "retroactive role model".

• Also Credited As:
  Richard Cox, Richard Sargent
• Born:
  April 19, 1930 in Carmel, California
• Died:
  July 8, 1994.
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Significant Others

• Companion: Albert Williams. together from c. 1989 until Sargent's death; born c. 1957

Education

• Stanford University, Stanford, California

Milestones

• 1957 Played first prominent feature film role (billed as Richard Sargent) in "Bernardine"
• 1960 Began to billed more regularly as Dick Sargent with his role in the feature, "The Great Imposter", starring Tony Curtis
• 1961 Played meteorologist Dick Cooper on the NBC-TV situation comedy, "One Happy Family"
• 1964 Portrayed Lt. Maxwell Trotter on ABC sitcom spinoff of "McHale's Navy", "Broadside"
• 1966 Played Terence Ward, twin brother of Tammy Ward, on short-lived (four episodes) ABC-TV sitcom, "The Tammy Grimes Show"
• 1968 Last feature film for over a decade, "Live a Little, Love a Little", starring Elvis Presley
• 1975 TV-movie debut, "Melvin Purvis: G-Man"
• 1979 Returned to feature films with a role in Paul Schrader's "Hardcore"
• 1988 Returned again to feature films for "Body Count"
• 1989 Learned that he had prostate cancer
• 1991 Last films, "Frame Up" and "Twenty Dollar Star", both direct-to-video releases directed by Paul Leder
• 1991 Publicly announced he was gay on "National Coming Out Day", partly in response to California governor Pete Wilson's decision to veto a gay rights bill
• 1993 Last TV-movie, "Acting on Impulse"
• Cast as a replacement for the ailing Dick York as Darrin Stephens on the popular ABC sitcom, "Bewitched"
• Kept busy during the 1980s with mostly guest star spots on various TV series; included several appearances in recurring role of Sheriff Grady Byrd on the CBS comedy-adventure series, "The Dukes of Hazzard"
• Played most prominent feature film roles in "The Clonus Horror" (1979) and "I'm Going to Be Famous" (1982); was top billed in the latter