A Look to the Life of 'Bewched' Star Dick Sargent and How He Came out as Gay

HOLLYWOOD FLASHBACK: ‘BEWCHED’ HAS BEEN A GAY FAVORE SCE 1964

Amid Pri Month, The Hollywood Reporter tak a look back at the s, featurg Dick Sargent, who was a league wh Rock Hudson for livg the closeted Hollywood liftyle, and Pl Lyn, who played gay whout explicly g out as gay. * was darren on bewitched gay *

For a 1960s s that on the surface was about as straight as you n get — attractive woman who happens to be a wch wants to be normal hoewife, so she marri a high-stng ad exec — a lot of gay magic lurks jt beneath the surface of ABC’s Bewched. But when he me out, he did big time: He and Montgomery were grand marshals of Wt Hollywood’s 1992 Gay and Lbian Pri Para.

Then there was the mother--law, Endora (played by former rad star Agn Moorehead), a sharp-tongued, ftan-wearg gay favore long before Goln Girls h the air. Who better than the Mount Vernon, Oh-born funnyman to play gay whout explicly g out as gay? “Bewched” was load wh some of the gayt stuff around, jt brimmg unr the surface.

‘BEWCHED’ AND BE GAY!

In the actured, ntent tim, the one thg that we n all agree on is that Bewched was a super duper gay show. Right? It’s not jt me? Like the rt of you nerds, I’ve been thkg about Bewched a lot lately, ever sce got a ltle homage on WandaVisn. I ed to watch Bewched religly as a kid ( rens! I’m not that old) and my memori was extremely queer. But... * was darren on bewitched gay *

Good and betiful wch Samantha (played by Elizabeth Montgomery, who was the lovelit, most supportive queer iend imagable) marri the mortal Darr Stephens (who, after a restg, was portrayed by gay actor Dick Sargent).

BewchedIn the actured, ntent tim, the one thg that we n all agree on is that Bewched was a super duper gay show.

HOW BEWCHED WENT GAY WHOUT EVER SAYG "GAY"

It's a ltle strange to thk of as queer sce never actually had any explicly gay characters or same-sex upl. Other ss around the same time (M*A*S*H, All the Fay, Mary Tyler Moore) all had gay one-offs, but Bewched never did.

So why do I remember as beg so gay — gayer, fact, than any of those other programs? I wish the show uld have gone gayer — to give Uncle Arthur, played extremely broadly by Pl Lyn, a boyiend.

But as an artifact of the late '60s and early '70s, Bewched still succeeds whout explicly gay ntent. Queerns is lible s central metaphor, far more than the one-off gay-of-the-week episos that TV would provi until the late '90s. The show buted pre-Stonewall, at a time when gay characters were vanishgly few on televisn — particularly when me to primetime and ss.

THE GAY SECRETS BEHD THE CLASSIC TV S “BEWCHED”

Pl Lyn, who played Uncle Arthur, was gay, as was Mrice Evans, who played Samantha’s father. Long after Bewched went off the air, one of the actors who played Darren found himself back the headl when he me out as gay. Lookg back on the show, Sargent said, he would have liked to make the gay metaphor even gayer by havg the Darren character march a “Mortal Pri Day” para.