Dick York Biography

Richard Allen York, known as Dick York (September 4, 1928 " February 20, 1992), was an American actor. He is best remembered for his role as the first Darrin Stephens on the ABC television fantasy sitcom, Bewitched. His best known motion picture role was as teacher Bertram Cates in the 1960 film Inherit the Wind.

Early life

Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, York grew up in Chicago, where a Catholic nun first recognized his vocal promise. He began his career at the age of 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 Glenn Ford in movies, including My Sister Eileen and Cowboy.

It was while filming the 1959 movie They Came to Cordura with Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth that York would receive a permanently disabling back injury. In York's own words: "Gary Cooper and I were propelling a handcar carrying several 'wounded' men down [the] railroad track. I was on the bottom stroke of this sort of teeter-totter mechanism that made the handcar run. I was just lifting the handle up as the director yelled 'cut!' and one of the "wounded" cast members reached up and grabbed the handle. I was suddenly, jarringly, lifting his entire weight off the flatbed"?one hundred and eighty pounds or so. The muscles along the right side of my back tore. They just snapped and let loose. And that was the start of it all: the pain, the painkillers, the addiction, the lost career."

In 1960, he played the role of Bertram Cates (modelled on John Thomas Scopes, of "Monkey Trial" fame) in the film version of Inherit the Wind.

York went on to star with Gene Kelly and Leo G. Carroll in the ABC television comedy/drama Going My Way. York was cast in the series as Tom Colwell, who operates a secular youth center.

York appeared in dozens of episodes of now-classic television series, including Justice, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Americans, Wagon Train, and CBS's The Twilight Zone and Route 66.

Bewitched

York was cast as the first Darrin Stephens in the 1960s sitcom, Bewitched. The show was a huge success and York was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1968. Because of his back injury, which sometimes caused him to seize up in debilitating pain in later years, the scripts for some of his final episodes on Bewitched were written around his being in bed or on the couch for the entire episode. One day, during the fifth season of the sitcom: "I was too sick to go on. I had a temperature of 105, full of strong antibiotics, for almost 10 days. I went to work that day but I was sick. I lay in my dressing room after being in make-up, waiting to be called on the set. They knew I was feeling pretty rotten, and they tried to give me time to rest. I kept having chills. This was the middle of the summer and I was wearing a sheepskin jacket and I was chilling. I was shaking all over. Then, while sitting on a scaffolding with Maurice Evans, being lit for a special effects scene: They were setting an inky - that's a little tiny spot[light] that was supposed to be just flickering over my eyes. That flickering, flickering flickering made me feel weird. And I'm sitting on this platform up in the air...and I turned to Gibby, who was just down below, and I said, 'Gibby, I think I have to get down.' He started to help me down and that's the last thing I remember until I woke up on the floor. That's about all I remember of the incident...and I'd managed to bite a very large hole in the side of my tongue before they could pry my teeth apart."

From York's hospital bed, he and director Bill Asher discussed York's future. "Do you want to quit?" Asher asked. "If it's all right with you, Billy," York replied. With that, York left the show to devote himself to recovery. From season six until the series ended in 1972, the role of Darrin Stephens was played by actor Dick Sargent. Sargent was originally offered the role of Darrin in 1964, but turned it down to do a short-lived sitcom called Broadside.

Later years

Largely bedridden, York battled not only his back pain but an addiction to prescription pain killers.

In his memoir, The Seesaw Girl and Me, published posthumously, he describes the struggle to break his addiction and to come to grips with the loss of his career. The book is in large part a love letter to his wife, Joan (née Alt), the seesaw girl of the title, who stuck with him through the hard times. York eventually beat his addiction and tried to revive his career. He appeared on several prime-time television series including Simon & Simon and Fantasy Island.

York, a three pack a day smoker, spent his final years battling emphysema. While bedridden in his Rockford, Michigan, home, he founded Acting for Life, a private charity to help the homeless and others in need. Using his telephone as his pulpit, York motivated politicians, business people, and the general public to contribute supplies and money.

Despite his suffering, York said, "I've been blessed. I have no complaints. I've been surrounded by people in radio, on stage and in motion pictures and television who love me. The things that have gone wrong have been simply physical things."

York died of complications from emphysema at Blodgett Hospital in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 20, 1992. He was sixty-three years old.

York is buried in Plainfield Cemetery in Rockford, Michigan.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1945	Insomnia (Combat Fatigue: Insomnia)	Lucky	Short film for U.S. Navy
1947	Shy Guy	Philip Norton	Short film
1950	Last Date	Nick	Short film
1951	How Friendly Are You?	Phil	Short film
1955	My Sister Eileen	Ted 'Wreck' Loomis
1955	Three Stripes in the Sun	Cpl. Neeby Muhlendorf
1957	Operation Mad Ball	Cpl. Bohun
1958	Cowboy	Charlie, Trailhand
1959	The Last Blitzkrieg	Sgt. Ludwig
1959	They Came to Cordura	Pvt. Renziehausen
1960	Inherit the Wind	Bertram T. Cates
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955	Goodyear Television Playhouse	John Randolph	Episode: "Visit to a Small Planet"
1955	The Philco Television Playhouse	Andy	Episode: "Incident in July"
1955	Justice		Episode: "Fatal Payment"
1955"1957	Kraft Television Theatre		Episode: "Million Dollar Rookie Episode: "Mock Trial" Episode: "Ride into Danger"
1956	Playwrights '56	Grayson	Episode: "Honor"
1956	Eye on New York	Lt. Mac Hartman	Episode: "Night of the Auk"
1956"1958	Studio One	George Fox George Weston Captain Jay Hellman	Episode: "A Man's World" Episode: "The Weston Strain" Episode: "The Enemy Within"
1957	The Kaiser Aluminum Hour	Edward Gillis	Episode: "A Real Fine Cutting Edge"
1957"1962	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Manny Coe Norman Logan J.J. Bunce Ralph Jones Tom Barton Herbert J. Wiggam	Episode: "Vicious Circle" Episode: "The Dusty Drawer" Episode: "The Blessington Method" Episode: "The Doubtful Doctor" Episode: "You Can't Be a Little Girl All Your Life" Episode: "The Twelve Hour Caper"
1958	The United States Steel Hour	Gordon Bates	Episode: "Beaver Patrol"
	Climax!	Gordon Bates	Episode: "Shooting for the Moon"
1958"1959	Playhouse 90	Scott Arlen Tom Matthew Sherwood	Episode: "The Last Clear Chance" Episode: "The Time of Your Life" Episode: "Made in Japan" Episode: "Out of Dust"
1958, 1960	The Millionaire	Ken Leighton Sandy Newell	Episode: "The Ken Leighton Story" Episode: "Millionaire Sandy Newell"
1960	The Untouchables	Ernie Torrance	Episode: "The White Slavers"
	Alcoa Theatre	Corporal James Sloan	Episode: "The Glorious Fourth"
	Stagecoach West	Webb Crawford	Episode: "Three Wise Men"
1960-1961	The Twilight Zone	Capt. Phil Riker Hector Poole	Episode: "The Purple Testament" Episode: "A Penny for Your Thoughts"
1961	Naked City	Charles Colano	Episode: "Bullets Cost Too Much"
	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Lt. James Whitney	Episode: "School of the Soldier"
	The Americans	Bolick	Episode: "The War Between the States"
	General Electric Theater	Ashael Miller	Episode: "A Musket for Jessica"
	Adventures in Paradise	Markham Jones	Episode: "The Reluctant Hero"
	The Outlaws	Sam Nichols	Episode: "Night Riders"
	Dr. Kildare	Harry Benton	Episode: "The Lonely Ones"
	Frontier Circus	Jeb Randall	Episode: "The Shaggy Kings"
1961, 1963	Rawhide	Frank Price Elwood P. Gilroy	Episode: "Incident of the Broken Word" Episode: "Incident at Confidence Creek"
1961"1964	Wagon Train	Willie Pettigrew Charley Shutup Ben Mitchell	Episode: "The Clementine Jones Story" Episode: "The Charley Shutup Story" Episode: "The Michael Malone Story"
1962	Thriller	Fred Bancroft	Episode: "The Incredible Doktor Markesan"
1962"1963	Going My Way	Tom Colwell
1963	Insight		Episode: "Breakthrough"
	Route 66	Lieutenant School	Episode: "What a Shining Young Man Was Our Gallant Lieutenant"
	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Sheriff Will Pearce	Episode: "Terror at Northfield"
	The Virginian	Jeff Tolliver	Episode: "Stopover in a Western Town"
1964"1969	Bewitched	Darrin Stephens
1965	The Flintstones	Darrin Stephens	Episode: "Samantha"
1983	Simon & Simon	Martin Donlevy	Episode: "Too Much of a Good Thing"
1984	Fantasy Island		Episode: "Sweet Life/Games People Play"

Awards and nominations

Emmy Awards

• 1968: Nominated, "Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series"- Bewitched

See also