During the filming of
They Came to 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.
