Born April 19: Dick Sargent

Although Dick Sargent is forever known as the second Darrin on Bewitched, he actually was cast in that role first but could not get out of his contract with Universal. When he finally joined the show after Dick York dropped out, it became one of the gayest casts in prime time, with lesbian Agnes Moorehead, ubergay Paul Lynde, and the actress who played Tabitha also grew up to be a lesbian. Sargent was in a twenty year relationship with a man he identifies only as Frank, and they frequently socialized as a couple with Elizabeth Montgomery and her husband. For the last several years of his life he lived with his partner Albert Williams. He came out on National Coming Out Day, October 11, 1991, in part as a reaction to Gov. Pete Wilson’s veto of a bill protecting gay people from job discrimination and because of concerns about high suicide rates among gay teenagers. He had tried to kill himself twice at Stanford when he realized he was gay. Devoting his final years to LGBT rights activism, he died of prostate cancer in 1994.