Biographie

During the filming of Ceux de Cordura (1959), Dick was seriously injured during a railroad handcar scene. He and Gary Cooper were propelling a handcar down a railroad track with other men when he accidentally lifted the mechanism without his comrades' help and wrenched his back, tearing the muscles along the right side of his back. For him it was the beginning of the end. He grew addicted to painkillers and struggled valiantly another decade before retiring in 1969.

Was left impoverished in 1976 after a real estate investment failed, and was on welfare for a time.

Started a charity called "Acting for Life". He spent most of his time on the telephone raising money for the homeless and getting people to donate food and clothing.

Despite their antagonistic roles on Bewitched (1964) as Darrin and Endora, York grew quite close to actress Agnes Moorehead off camera.

Director Stanley Kramer allowed Dick to write his first scene in the movie Le souffle de la haine (1960), in which his character, educator Bertram Cates, goes on trial for teaching his students Darwin's theory of evolution. This was his last film role. He subsequently concentrated on TV.

You know, three whales get in trouble and people from all over volunteer to help. Wouldn't it be wonderful if one old has-been actor with a hose up his nose could help millions?

I have done more in this chair here than I could have ever done in Hollywood.

I don't work because I love it. In our household, work is something Daddy does to provide us with things we need for our physical comforts . . . I love other things more than my work.

[Of his seizure that caused him to end his best-known role on Bewitched (1964)]: I was too sick to go on. I had a temperature of 105, full of strong antibiotics, for almost 10 days. I went to work that day but I was sick. I lay in my dressing room after being in make-up, waiting to be called on the set. They knew I was feeling pretty rotten, and they tried to give me time to rest. I kept having chills. This was the middle of the summer and I was wearing a sheepskin jacket and I was chilling. I was shaking all over. Then, while sitting on a scaffolding with Maurice Evans, being lit for a special effects scene: They were setting an inky - that's a little tiny spot[light] that was supposed to be just flickering over my eyes. That flickering, flickering flickering made me feel weird. And I'm sitting on this platform up in the air...and I turned to Gibby, who was just down below, and I said, 'Gibby, I think I have to get down.' He started to help me down and that's the last thing I remember until I woke up on the floor. That's about all I remember of the incident...and I'd managed to bite a very large hole in the side of my tongue before they could pry my teeth apart.

[Just before his death]: I am happy, complete. I know that you've known me a very longtime, I've been on television, I've been in your living rooms and now I'm in your heart!