Sargent was a trim, handsome man with a longish chin. He played a variety of gawky businessmen roles in feature films before finding a niche in tv history as the second Darrin on "Bewitched". Shortly before his death, Sargent publicly proclaimed he was gay, and became what he called "a retroactive role model" in the battle for gay rights.
Congenial, mild-mannered Dick Sargent was a reliably bemused foil on film and TV for nearly four decades. He was born Richard Cox on April 19, 1930 in Carmel, California. His mother, Ruth McNaughton, was a minor actress who went by the stage name of Ruth Powell; his father, Colonel Elmer Cox, served in WWI and later became a business manager to such Hollywood alumni as Douglas Fairbanks and Erich von Stroheim. Dick attended the San Rafael Military Academy in Menlo Park, California before majoring in drama at Stanford University. He finally got his career rolling debuting in an uncredited role in the movie Prisoner of War (1954) starring Ronald Reagan (I). Using the stage moniker Richard Sargent, he would build up a reliable resume over the years on TV both in drama and comedy including work on "Gunsmoke, "Wagon Train," "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Adam-12." Regular co-starring roles in the series "One Happy Family" (1961) and "Broadside" (1964) kept him busy if not memorably busy. Now known as "Dick Sargent," the actor was a friendly, dependable and well-admired performer but his work was often deemed ordinary and achromatic. On occasion he would find more redeeming support work in such hit movie comedies as Operation Petticoat (1959) and That Touch of Mink (1962) both with Cary Grant, but ultimately mixed in would be a lot of forgettable nonsense such as Fluffy (1965) with Tony Randall (I), Billie (1965) starring Patty Duke, the Don Knotts vehicle Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The (1966), the Elvis Presley misfire Live a Little, Love a Little (1968), and the totally unfunny Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell, The (1968) with Bob Hope (I) and Phyllis Diller (I) at their career nadir. Too many of Dick's films fell into the fair to abysmal category. As a result, he never advanced into the upper echelon of star players. A big chance for stardom dissipated after being paired promisingly with Tammy Grimes on her TV show in 1966. There was no magic and it lasted just four weeks. Magic did occur, literally, a few years later. In 1969, Dick, who actually had been the original choice to play Darrin Stephens on the hit show "Bewitched" (1964), was given a second chance to play the bemused mortal husband of Elizabeth Montgomery (I). A chronic back pain finally necessitated the replacing of ailing Dick York (I). Sargent came in without a hitch and the switching of Darrins was done without any explanation at all. Dick's three seasons on the popular show made him a household face, if not a household name. Dick continued on TV throughout the 1970s and 1980s with guest parts on "Taxi", "Alice", "Fantasy Island" and "Three's Company", and without a lot of fanfare. One of his better roles came in the form of George C. Scott's dramatic film Hardcore (1979). In the perpetually gloomy urban tale, which takes place in the seamy world of prostitution and pornography, Dick stands out as one of the film's not-so-reputable characters. He also played a role in another witch-themed story line called Teen Witch (1989). In between he did voice work for commercials and performed occasionally on stage. In 1989, "the second Darrin" was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He later revealed to the world he was homosexual after tabloid papers began to refer to his serious illness as AIDS-related. Sargent died in 1994, having lived out his last few years openly and contentedly.
