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.

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. It's a ltle strange to thk of as queer sce never actually had any explicly gay characters or same-sex upl.

‘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 *

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.

HOW BEWCHED WENT GAY WHOUT EVER SAYG "GAY"

The show buted pre-Stonewall, at a time when gay characters were vanishgly few on televisn — particularly when me to primetime and ss.

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. Dick Sargent was an Amerin actor, famo for his role the ABC's edy, "Bewched, " as the send actor to assume the Darr Stephens' his ath 1994, the "Bewched" star, Richard Standford Cox, popularly known as Dick Sargent (a name he adopted om an artist who was the origal bearer, ) lived his life as a retroactive role mol to the Amerin gay populatn. " However, his first major role me 1957's "Bernarde, " where he starred as Stanford Wilson, a lovick teenage Sargent and sts of "Bewched" | Photo: WikipediaFollowg his big break, the late gay rights activist took more actg rol, makg appearanc "Operatn Pettiat, " The Ghost and Mr.

THE GAY SECRETS BEHD THE CLASSIC TV S “BEWCHED”

SARGENT'S LIFE AS A GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTThe movie legend ma the first public claratn of his sexual stat 1991, on Natnal Comg Out Day. After g out as gay, he beme an active supporter of gay rights Sargent before his ath 1994 | Photo: Getty ImagDurg his time, suici among young homosexuals was proment, leadg the idol to fortify his support of gay and lbian issu, while referrg to himself as "a retroactive role mol. "Sargent's volvement the gay movement earned him the place of Grand Marshall at the Los Angel Orange County Gay Pri Para, alongsi Elizabeth TABLOID'S FIRST REVELATION OF SARGENT'S SEXUALITY Before summong the urage to clare his sexual preferenc, the late star lived bondage, imprisoned by his secrets, and the thought of the would-be repercsns if people got to fd out he was not he assumed a "straight" outward persona while stag a relatnship wh his longtime sweetheart and gay partner.

The ndn was nsired benign at first, but after several failed attempts to ntrol the illns, he beme termally Sargent before his ath 1994 | WikipediaIt was at this time that words of his illns got out, leadg to mors that the gay activist was down wh AIDS, a disease that plagued most of the gay date, many still speculate that the legend died of the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency TALES OF THE "BEWITCHED" ICONUnknown to many who refer to the idol as the send Derr, Sargent was st first on the show, even before his unterpart, but his active role on another seri led him to reject the fixture at the time. As fate would have , he got the opportuny about four years later and killed the Darr his n on the eight seasons seri, the activist was admtedly a relatnship wh a gay lover, who later died of cerebral hemorrhage years before his grand outg. Casts of "Bewched" Darr Stephens and Dick Sargent | Photo: WikipediaIn addn to his massive ntributn to gay rights, he also partook outreach programs that brought relief to children velopg untri, while actg as an advote for the Christian Children's Fund.

So if you're gay and datg a young man, they want to be the dirty-old-man type of affair. [Of Connie Francis] We looked passnately at each other, but that was the only time I ever saw X or Y is gay, and you say so and they're the closet, then that n possibly hurt them.