Born Richard Allen York in Fort Wayne, Indiana, my parents are Bernard and Betty York. I moved to Chicago at the age of 5 with my parents. I attended St. Mary of the Lake Grammar School. At the age of 9 I started working with Jack and Jill Players. My first roll was a fish in Water Babies. At the age 15 I was the star of the CBS radio program That Brewster Boy. Later on in life I went to DePaul Academy, then later studied drama at DePaul University. I also appeared in hundreds of other radio shows and instructional films before heading to New York City, where I acted on Broadway in Tea and Sympathy and Bus Stop. I 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. I played the role of Bertram Cates (John Scopes), 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. I 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.
I am best known as the first actor to play Darrin Stephens in the 1960s sitcom Bewitched. The show was a huge success and I was nominated for an Emmy in 1968, but had a debilitating back injury that I had suffered on the set of They Came to Cordura causing me increasing pain. During the fifth season on the sitcom, I collapsed on the Bewitched set and was rushed to the hospital. From my hospital bed, I resigned from the show to devote myself to recovery. For the 1969-70 season, I was replaced in the TV series by actor Dick Sargent, who held the role until the series ended in 1972.
I married in 1951 to my wife Joan Alt whom I was with until my death. I had five children. Their names are Kim, Mandy, Stacie, Christopher, and Matthew.Largely bedridden, I battled not only my back pain but an addiction to prescription pain pills.In my posthumously-published memoir, The Seesaw Girl and Me, I describe the struggle to break my addiction and to come to grips with the loss of my career. The book is in large part a love letter to my wife, Joan, the seesaw girl of the title, who stuck with me through the hard times.
I eventually beat my addiction and tried to revive my career. I appeared on several prime-time TV shows including Simon and Simon and Fantasy Island.I, was a heavy smoker, spent my final years battling emphysema. While bedridden in my Rockford, Michigan home, I founded Acting for Life, a private charity to help the homeless and others in need. Using my telephone as my pulpit, I motivated politicians, business people, and regular folk to contribute supplies and money. I died February 20, 1992 (aged 63) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US I was buried in Plainfield Cemetery in Rockford, Michigan.Causes of death: Emphysema complicated by a degenerative spinal condition.
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