Welcome to February! This month we are learning about some Bewitching characters, four actors who appeared on the show Bewitched: Dick Sargent, Dick York, George Tobias, and Alice Pearce. We are beginning with Dick Sargent.

Richard Cox was born in California in 1930. He later changed his name to Dick Sargent for his career. Sargent’s mother, Ruth McNaughton, was an actress using the name Ruth Powell. His father was a manager for many famous Hollywood actors including Douglas Fairbanks and Erich von Stroheim.

Dick majored in drama at Stanford University, appearing in a couple of dozen plays with the Stanford Players. After graduation, he began his movie career with his first film, Prisoner of War in 1954 starring Ronald Reagan. He had small roles in 35 films during his career including Love Me Tender with Elvis Presley, Operation Petticoat with Cary Grant, and That Touch of Mink with Doris Day. 1954 was also the year he began his television career in I Married Joan. Sargent would go on to appear in another 78 series before his career ended.

In the sixties he had his first roles as a cast member. He was in One Happy Family in 1961, Broadside in 1964, and The Tammy Grimes Show in 1966.

He was cast as Darrin Stephens in Bewitched from 1969-1972.

Sargent was originally asked to play Darrin in the pilot of Bewitched, but he was under contract with Universal, so he had to turn it down. I will admit, he had great credentials and a great career, and I appreciated his acting ability and admired him for his charitable work, but to be honest, I never liked him as Darrin, much preferring Dick York. I felt the same way about Sandra Gould who replaced Alice Pearce; she was a fine actress, but she just wasn’t Gladys.

It was more than the fact that they were both replacements. Dick York just seemed to have all the great traits of Darrin, and I understood why Samantha fell in love with him, even when he was being stubborn and unreasonable. However, with Sargent, he seemed to have a touch of arrogance and impatience. I also think York’s mannerisms gave more depth to the role and provided more humor. However, I do think the writing was much better in the early years, so if Sargent had been free to accept the role from the beginning, maybe his character would have been more likable.

Sargent’s only other regular cast role came in 1984 in Down to Earth. There were a lot of weird plots on sitcoms in the eighties, and this was one of them. After being struck down by a trolley in 1925, Ethel MacDoogan, a flapper, waits in heaven for a chance to help a family and earn her wings. That chance arrives in the form of the Preston family with Sargent as the father.

In between 1972 and 1984 he continued his television roles appearing on I Dream of Jeannie, Here’s Lucy, Taxi, Alice, Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels, The Waltons, and Murder She Wrote.

Sargent was an advocate for many charities. He and Sally Struthers raised money for the Christian Children’s Fund. He also worked on behalf of Special Olympics, World Hunger, AIDS Project Los Angeles, and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

Sargent was a closeted gay man for much of his career, but in 1991 on National Coming Out Day, he admitted that he was gay. He said he felt he had to open up because he was concerned about the high rate of suicide among young, gay men. Sargent said when he finally came out at age 61, “It was such a relief. I lived in fear of being found out. Now it’s given me a whole new mission in life.”

In 1989, Sargent was diagnosed with prostate cancer and passed away five years later.

Despite my preference for Dick York as Darrin, Sargent had an amazing career. He was able to continue in both film and television until he passed away in 1989. He gave back to the community and tried to make the world better for children, which I greatly appreciate. Whether you prefer York or Sargent, they were both Bewitching characters who helped make the show a favorite for decades.