richard allen york was born september 4th 1928 in fort wayne indiana but grew up in chicago his
parents were bernard and betty york as a teenager york began his show business career as the star of
the cbs program that brewster boy he also appeared in many other radio shows and instructional films
york moved to new york city where he performed on broadway in bus stop as york moved into television
work he performed with stars including paul muni and joanne woodward and with janet lee jack lemmon
and glenn ford in movies including cowboy and my sister eileen while filming the movie
they came to cordura in 1959 with gary cooper he suffered a permanent disabling back injury while
operating a railroad hand car in 1960 after york's injury he was able to play the role of bertram
cates in the film inherit the wind next dick went on to star with gene kelly for one season in the
abc comedy drama going my way in 1962. york acted in dozens of episodes of now classic television
series including the alfred hitchcock hour the untouchables rawhide wagon train father knows best
and cbs's the twilight zone and route 66 dick york is probably best remembered as darren stevens
in the 1960s sitcom bewitched with elizabeth montgomery york was nominated for an emmy award
for bewitched in 1968. his back pain became a serious problem while filming bewitched
the crew built a slanted wall for him to lean on in between scenes which during the
first two seasons allowed york to manage his back injury during the third season york's injury was
aggravated into a more painful degenerative spine condition frequently causing shooting delays while
york required assistance to walk around sometimes york would seize up in debilitating pain so the
scripts for some of the later episodes on bewitch were written around him being in bed or on the
couch for the entire episode york did not appear in a handful of season three and four episodes
and by halfway through season five was barely appearing at all causing the series to focus
more on samantha and other members of the family eventually york ended up in the hospital unable to
go on working from york's hospital bed director william asher and he 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 sitcom to devote himself to recovery he never again returned to the set of bewitched york became
addicted to painkillers for many years however dick eventually beat his addiction and in the
early 1980s tried to revive his career his last two film credits were on tv series simon and simon
and fantasy island eventually without being able to perform dick and his wife joan who he married
in 1951 took what was left of their savings and bought an apartment building but when tenants had
difficulty paying the rent york could not bring himself to a victim short of cash himself he
missed mortgage payments and the bank foreclosed the yorks held on to their apartment by cleaning
other units in the building they once owned in 1976 the actor who once earned a six-figure salary
got his first welfare check dick york was a three pack a day smoker for much of his life and often
smoked cigarettes on the set of bewitched he spent his final years battling emphysema by 1989 he was
using an oxygen tank to help him breathe while bedridden in his rockford michigan home he founded
acting for life a private charity to help the homeless and others in need york personally called
and motivated politicians business people and the general public to contribute to supplies and money
despite his suffering york once 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 sadly dick york died of complications from emphysema
at blodgett hospital in east grand rapids michigan on february 20th 1992 he was only 63 years old