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Born 4 September 1928, Fort Wayne — died 20 February 1992
The tie: Richard Allen York was born in Fort Wayne on September 4, 1928, the son of Bernard York, a salesman, and Betty York, a seamstress. The family moved to Chicago when he was about five, and he was raised there — a birth tie, like Lombard's and Fischer's, printed at that strength. His comedy record is one role, and it is enough: for five seasons he was the mortal half of one of the most durable sitcoms ever made.
The career: York began as a child radio actor in Chicago — at fifteen he held the lead in the radio series That Brewster Boy — and worked on Broadway before moving to film and television, with a straight-acting high point as the teacher Bertram Cates in Inherit the Wind (1960). In 1964 he was cast as Darrin Stephens, the advertising man married to Elizabeth Montgomery's witch Samantha in ABC's Bewitched, and played the part for five seasons and 170 episodes, the exasperated straight man around whom the show's magic — and most of its comedy — revolved. A chronic back ailment forced him out in 1969; Dick Sargent played Darrin for the remaining three seasons. The farewell-interview account published after his death records the measure of his hold on the part: after the replacement, the show dropped thirteen places in the ratings. York died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 20, 1992, aged sixty-three.
Sources:
- Dick York, biographical record as carried by Wikipedia and the standard references — the Fort Wayne birth of September 4, 1928, the parents' occupations, Bewitched 1964–69, and the death of February 20, 1992.
- FilmFax, "Dick York — A Farewell Interview" (April 1992, via bewitched.net) — born in Fort Wayne, the move to Chicago at about five, and the thirteen-place ratings drop after his replacement.
- IMDb, "Dick York" — 170 episodes of Bewitched; the departure in 1969 on account of the chronic back ailment.