LOS ANGELES -- Dick Sargent, 64, who played the beleaguered husband on the television series "Bewitched" and later declared his homosexuality with pride, died of prostate cancer July 8 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center here.
But in a television interview in March, a frail-looking Mr. Sargent said the disease had spread.
"I don't know how much longer I have, and nobody can seem to predict it, he told "Entertainment Tonight."
In 1991, on National Coming Out Day, Mr. Sargent announced he was gay. The high rate of suicide among young homosexuals was the main reason, he said, jokingly referring to himself as a "retroactive role model."
He recognized that his ill health may have led people to assume he had AIDS.
"I don't have AIDS," he said. "I am HIV-negative. But if I did I would wear that badge as proudly as everybody else who has it."
Mr. Sargent was best known for his role, from 1969 to 1972, on the ABC comedy "Bewitched." He played advertising executive Darrin Stephens, a "mortal" coping with marriage to a charming witch, Samantha, played by Elizabeth Montgomery. His predecessor as Darrin, from 1964 to 1969, was Dick York, who died in 1992. The series was one of the most popular of its day.
Mr. Sargent was born Richard Cox in Carmel, Calif., the child of parents with show business ties. His mother, Ruth McNaughton, was a supporting actress in "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" and other movies. His father, Elmer Cox, was a business manager whose clients included Douglas Fairbanks.
As a Stanford University student, Mr. Sargent appeared in more than two dozen plays with the Stanford Players Theater.
After graduating, he won a bit part in the 1954 film "Prisoner of War," with Ronald Reagan, and appeared in the films "Bernardine" and "A Touch of Mink," starring Cary Grant.
On television, Mr. Sargent appeared in "Gunsmoke," "Playhouse 90" and "Family Ties." He also appeared in four made-for-television movies and was a regular in five series, including the 1961 sitcom "One Happy Family."
In private life, he did charitable work for the Special Olympics, World Hunger, AIDS Project Los Angeles and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
