Dick Sargent
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
"Realizing that revealing his homosexuality could wreck his career, (Sargent) posed with buxom actresses for magazine spreads and even added a phony failed marriage to his publicity bio." (from "People", 7/25/94)
Biography
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."
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
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"
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Realizing that revealing his homosexuality could wreck his career, (Sargent) posed with buxom actresses for magazine spreads and even added a phony failed marriage to his publicity bio." (from "People", 7/25/94)
