July 8, 1994
Los Angeles, California, USA. (prostate cancer)
April 19, 1930
Carmel, California, USA
Dick Sargent's mother, Ruth McNaughton, daughter of John McNaughton who founded Los Angeles famed Union Stockyards, had important supporting roles in such screen classics as "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and "Hearts and Trumps" with the great Nazimova. She appeared under the 'nom-de-arte' of Ruth Powell. Dick's father, Col. Elmer Cox, war hero, land developer, boxing promoter, investor, world traveler, was business manager of Eric Von Stroheim and Douglas Fairbanks. He appeared in Von Stroheim's daring film, "Foolish Wives". When Dick was born in Carmel, California, his parents were in retirement. Dick enrolled at San Rafael Military Academy near San Francisco, and at Menlo High School, in Menlo Park. While attending Stanford University, Dick starred in some 25 plays with the Stanford Studio Players Theatre. Upon his graduation, he won a bit role in MGM's "Prisoner of War", and changed his name to Sargent.
In the lean period thereafter, he sustained his hopes and needs with a variety of non-theatrical employments. He even dug ditches. Leaving a job as a department store salesman, he journeyed to the colonial city of San Miguel Allende in Mexico to enter the import-export business. He began a continuing collection of Mexican art and became a life-long aficionado of Latin America. However, the business folded and he returned to Hollywood and TV roles on "Medic", "Playhouse 90", "Gunsmoke", "Ripcord", "West Point", and "Code 3". In his first major motion picture role - in "Bernadine" - Dick won a "Laurel Award" from the nation's film exhibitors as one of the ten most promising newcomers of the year.
Bigger guest-starring roles followed on such shows as "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "Wagon Train", "Dr. Kildare", and "Hazel". For a season, he starred in the NBC-TV series "One Happy Family". Then Universal put Dick in "Operation Petticoat" with Cary Grant. That studio used him again in "The Great Imposter", "That Touch of Mink", "For Love Or Money" and "Captain Newman, M.D.". He also did the Universal series "Broadside", airing on ABC.
Sargent lives in Hollywood Hills in a two-story house which bears his imprint in the selection of paintings and art objects and landscaping. Dick's taste tends toward Early American design. Shy of marriage due to a hasty wedlock which ended in divorce, Dick finds bachelorhood best suited to this phase of his growing career. As time allows, he relaxes by swimming and surfing along the Pacific Coast. Sharing the hilltop retreat with Dick are two dogs, both mutts, Orson and Folly.
By Ron Green
After "Bewitched" ended in 1972, Sargent made numerous guest appearances on many popular tv series, including "Baretta", "Fantasy Island", "Three's Company", and three episodes of "Charlie's Angels".
In the 1980s, Sargent had a three-year run in the made-for-cable comedy series, "Down to Earth". Unfortunately, in late 1989, Sargent was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, but he remained optimistic that the doctors had caught it early and was determined to fight it.
In the 1990s, Sargent returned to the spotlight when the gossip magazine, The National Enquirer, outed him in an article. This prompted Sargent to publicly declare his homosexuality on National Coming Out Day in 1992. One of the reasons Sargent said he decided to come out was because of the high rate of suicides among young gay people.
Sargent made all the rounds on the tv and radio talk shows, and seemed to be enjoying this new phase of his career, jokingly referring to himself as a "retro-role model" because of the continued popularity of "Bewitched" reruns. Sargent's "Bewitched" co-star, Elizabeth Montgomery, supported his decision, and rode along side him as Grand Marshals of the Gay Pride Parade in Los Angeles on June 28th, 1992.
Sargent was working on his autobiography when his health took a turn for the worse when his cancer returned, and he succumbed to the disease on July 8, 1994 after a long, brave fight.
