‘Bewitched’ Star Dick York Faced Financial & Physical Struggles After On-Set Injury
Unfortunately, it can just take one accident to change your life forever. Even if you’re a famous celebrity, that doesn’t mean you’re immune to struggles, as evidenced by Dick York‘s story. York was best known for playing Darrin Stephens on Bewitched but had to leave the beloved role because he was in so much pain. In 1959, several years before Bewitched, he was filming a Western called They Came to Cordura. He was filming a scene on the second-to-last day, where he was among a few men to lift a railroad handcar.
When the director yelled “Cut,” York was the only one to hold on and hurt his back very badly, twisting his spine and tearing muscles in his back. However, he never got help, and the pain just kept on worsening. Eventually, his spinal discs failed and left him hunched and addicted to painkillers. By the time he was cast in Bewitched, he had a full-blown addiction from his pain issues. He suffered an epileptic seizure after passing out from the pain while filming an episode. York once revealed that it was the worst day of his life, and he was eventually replaced by Dick Sargent.
Everett Collection
Author Herbie J Pilato said toward the end of York’s life, before he died in 1992 at the age of 63, that he had some very difficult times. He explained, “Yes, Dick York was financially and physically destitute. He just did not have the money anymore. His career had dried up. He was in very poor health. There were no more calls for acting. It was tough to watch.”
Everett Collection
He continued, “He became a cleaning man. He went from being a star of one of the biggest TV shows in the history of television to cleaning toilets. It was humbling for him, and he never complained about it, but … it should not have happened.”
Herbie is the author of Twitch Upon a Star and The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery plus many other pop culture nostalgia books. All can be purchased on his site.
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October 2023
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