Dick York

Actor, most remembered for his role as Darrin Stephens, the often-frustrated husband of Elizabeth Montgomery, in the Television sitcom series, Bewitched. Born Richard Allen York in Fort Wayne, Indiana on 4 September 1928, he quickly found work in the entertainment industry. In 1943, at age 15, he became the star of the network radio program, “That Brewster Boy.” Beginning in movies in 1947, with the role of Philip norton in the film “Shy Guy” (1947), his roles were few and far between. To further develop his skills and to earn money, he played a number of small roles on early television shows, beginning with “Visit to a Small Planet” on the Goodyear Television Playhouse in May 1955. Over the next several years, he continued playing small, supporting actor roles on such TV series as Kraft Television Theatre, The Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, the USA Steel Hour, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, all the while doing numerous other supporting actor roles in less than memorable films, waiting for the big breakthrough role which never came. In 1959, while acting in the role of Private Renziehausen in the cavalry film “They Came to Cordura” (1959), he injured his back, which later aggravated into degenerative spine injury. Mr York was in the movie Inherit the Wind in 1960. Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against science teacher Bertram T. Cates (played by Dick York) accused of the crime of teaching evolution.
In 1964 he won the supporting role of Darrin Stephens in the comic TV series “Bewitched,” where he played the all-too-human husband of a witch with supernatural powers, played by Elizabeth Montgomery. His back continued to hurt him, and he quit the role in 1969, being replaced by actor Dick Sargent. From 1983 to 1985, he regained his health enough to play a couple of small supporting roles in such TV series as Simon and Simon and Fantasy Island. He later founded Acting for Life, a private fund raising effort for the homeless, which he managed from his home while bedridden from his degenerative spine injury.  He was married in 1951 to Joan York, until his death on 20 February 1992 of emphysema, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.