You may have seen him on old re-runs of Bewitched, but actor Dick York played a big role on the classic sitcom as Darrin Stephens. It's all the more shocking that York ended up completely broke and as a janitor after the show ended.
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Ultimately, he would die in 1992 at the age of 63. Herbie J Pilato, author of The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery and Twitch Upon a Star, told Fox News about the final days of the Bewitched star.
"Yes, Dick York was financially and physically destitute," he explained. "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."
"Now here I am, just a fan, and then later a friend . . . to see him in such a horrible situation," Pilato shared. "He forced himself to be positive, but he also knew he had to still make money. So, he would end up cleaning apartments to make money.
"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."
So what happened to York? The actor was filming a Western called They Came to Cordura when a train handcar fell on him and injured his spine and muscles. However, the actor never sought medical treatment, and he ended up with a hunched back.
'Bewitched' Star Ended Up Broke
In the 1960s, while filming Bewitched, York became addicted to painkillers to help him deal with his back injury. This called him to miss episodes of the show. "He never really recovered from the pain," Pilato explained. "He missed 14 episodes. What's Bewitched without Darren, without the main conflict of, 'No honey, don't do the magic?'"
Ultimately, York ended up collapsing and passing out while on stage. The actor never returned to the show. Bewitched replaced him with Dick Sargent.
"They had to replace him - they didn't have a choice," said Pilato. "He felt horrible about it. He did not want to damage the opportunity for all those people who were [working on the series]."
"He didn't want them to lose their jobs. He didn't want the show to end, so he just gave in and left. However, he did tell me that if he had that summer of 1969 . . . to fully recover, he [felt] that he would have been able to finish the show."
From there, York's career went down the drain. He only ended up acting a couple of times after. Instead, he turned his attention to forming the nonprofit Acting for Life and tried to raise money for homeless people. In his final years of life, York ended up living in a small cottage battling emphysema. Despite being broke, he focused on helping others.
"And yet here he was, in the midst of his illness, compounded now by emphysema, establishing Dick York's Acting for Life. . . . He had nothing himself, and there he was making phone calls to try and get money for homeless people who were worse off than him."
