Sargent was a trim, handsome man with a longish chin. He played a variety of gawky businessmen roles in feature films before finding a niche in tv history as the second Darrin on "Bewitched". Shortly before his death, Sargent publicly proclaimed he was gay, and became what he called "a retroactive role model" in the battle for gay rights.
The role of Darrin Stephens #2 on Bewitched (1964).
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Thick nasally, commanding voice.
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Quote
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[About Hollywood Marriages]: Now, whether George Tobias was gay or not, I couldn't say. But he never married, and his friends were always guys; he showed no interest whatsoever in women...
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I'm not against outing in terms of being pegged as gay. I am gay, I always was. It can't really hurt me now, I mean professionally. But for them to reveal it as if they caught you, like some dirty little secret - that was despicable.
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[on Agnes Moorehead] She was very set in her ways and I had to really make her my friend. About the third or fourth show I was in she said to people in front of me, "They should never meddle with success." Meaning Dick York should never have been replaced, which I thought was a very cruel and unthinking thing to say in front of me. But that was her. She came to rehearsals with a Bible in one hand and her script in the other. She was certainly the most professional woman in the world...and she was so good. Thank God we became friends eventually.
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[When he finally came out of the closet] It was such a relief. I lived in fear of being found out. Now it's given me a whole new mission in life.
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If X or Y is gay, and you say so and they're in the closet, then that can...it can possibly hurt them. That sort of reticence I understand, as an actor, or an ex-actor. But if the personality is deceased, and some co-star will still not say, then you can chalk that down to homophobia.
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[Of Connie Francis] We looked passionately at each other, but that was the only time I ever saw her.
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[About his difficult relationship he had with his father] I wanted him to love me, and I'm quite sure that he didn't.
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You've hit it on the head. It's all double-standards. So if you're gay and dating a young man, they want it to be the dirty-old-man type of affair. Then they wrote it like it was unheard of or exotic--it was a young black guy. And the word they used, in the Star that I was "besotted" with this young man, it was so judgmental! It's another word for drunk'
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Occasionally, I wonder about Bewitched (1964). But I guess we all wonder about something or other. Most working actors don't get a role where they become household faces. They may not know my name, I may be Darrin to people out there, but if people see you and smile at you and act like you're an old friend, I think that's a pretty swell accomplishment.
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Fact
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When he was the second actor to play Darrin Stephens on Bewitched (1964), his successor, Dick York, who left the show before, didn't mind him playing the role.
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Upon his death, he was cremated, and since he had no immediate family, his ashes were given to his friend.
Sargent and fellow Darrin-portrayer, Dick York, were once the subject of a "Jeopardy!" category called "Sargent/York", focusing on their non-Bewitched (1964) roles.
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Remembered by many for his role as the second "Darren Stevens" in Bewitched (1964).
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By chance became a "retroactive role model" for gays when he outed himself in 1991, after decades of keeping his personal life hidden. Suffering from prostate cancer, Sargent was compelled by a tabloid article indicating he had AIDS to "come out" and set the record straight, for which he received considerable public support. In 1992, his old friend and ex-TV wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, joined him as a co-Grand Marshall of the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade. It was their last appearance together.
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Coincidentally, Sargent and Tammy Grimes were said to have been original choices for the roles of Darrin and Samantha Stephens during the initial casting of the pilot episode of Bewitched (1964) in 1964. Sargent bowed out due to a contractual commitment to Universal. Grimes also had contractual problems. Later, Sargent went on to play Tammy's brother on her short-lived series The Tammy Grimes Show (1966) in 1966. Grimes' lead character's name happened to be Tamantha.
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Lived in Mexico and ran and import/export business in his early years. His love for Mexican art and culture stayed with him for the rest of his life.
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His grandfather, John McNaughton, founded Los Angeles's Union Stockyards.
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He was never married, but had a long-time companion whom he was with for 20 years before the man's death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1979. He had "manufactured" a wife to the press in the early productive days, to protect his career.
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His role on Bewitched (1964) was first offered to him in 1964, but he was under a contract with Universal Studios, so Dick York was hired instead. By the time an illness caused York to discontinue the role, Sargent was free enough to take over.
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Sargent's companion from 1989-1994 was writer/producer Albert Williams.
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His father, Elmer Cox, was a World War I hero and a Hollywood business manager. His mother, Ruth McNaughton, was a film actress.
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Dick appeared on the game show Tattletales (1974) with Fannie Flagg in the 1970s. Apparently they were dating at the time.
$7 Million
