Dick York
Dick York (
4 September 1928 –
20 February 1992) was an
American actor in
radio,
Broadway stage, and
television.
Born
Richard Allen York in
Fort Wayne,
Indiana, York grew up in
Chicago, where a
Catholic nun first recognized his vocal promise. He began his career at age 15 as the star of the
CBS radio program That Brewster Boy. He also appeared in hundreds of other radio shows and instructional films before heading to
New York City, where he acted on
Broadway in
Tea and Sympathy and
Bus Stop. He performed with stars including
Paul Muni and
Joanne Woodward in live television broadcasts and with
Janet Leigh,
Jack Lemmon, and
Gary Cooper in movies, including
My Sister Eileen,
Cowboy, and
They Came to Cordura. He played the role of Bertram Cates, the young teacher charged with teaching the theory of evolution, in the
1960 classic
Inherit the Wind starring
Spencer Tracy,
Fredric March, and
Gene Kelly. He went on to star with Kelly in the television comedy/drama
Going My Way and to appear in dozens of episodes of now-classic TV shows, including
Alfred Hitchcock Presents,
Wagon Train,
The Twilight Zone, and
Route 66.
York is best known as the first actor to play Darrin Stephens in the
1960s sitcom Bewitched. The show was a huge success and York was nominated for an
Emmy in 1968, but a debilitating back injury he had suffered on the set of
They Came to Cordura caused him increasing
pain, and led or contributed to his
misuse of
pain-alleviating drugs. During the fifth season on the sitcom, he collapsed on the
Bewitched set and was rushed to the hospital. From his hospital bed he resigned from the show to devote himself to
drug rehabilitation and recovery. For the 1969-70 season, he was replaced in the TV series by actor
Dick Sargent, who held the role until the series ended in 1972.
As he battled his back pain, York gained 150 pounds and lost most of his teeth. He and wife Joan supported themselves by cleaning an apartment house they owned until they fell on further hard times and lost the building. As York related in his posthumously-published memoir,
The Seesaw Girl and Me, it took him many more years to regain an interest in acting and to try to revive his career. He lost the weight he had gained, and appeared on several prime-time TV shows including
Simon and Simon and
Fantasy Island.
York spent his final years battling
emphysema. Ultimately bedridden in a small home in
Rockford,
Michigan, he founded "Acting for Life", a private fundraising effort to help the
homeless. Using his telephone as his pulpit, York motivated
politicians, business people, and regular folk to contribute supplies and money. York is buried in Plainfield Cemetery in Rockford.
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Dick York's Gravesite
