Hollywood star Dick Van Dyke has become a centenarian and shows no signs of slowing down, explaining he still has more he wants to do at 100 years old.
The veteran actor, most known for his appearances in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, was born on December 13th 1925 in West Plains, Missouri, and became interested in show business at an early age after watching Laurel and Hardy movies at his local cinema.
His popularity as a radio announcer led to him being signed by CBS and following some short TV shows, he cemented himself as a household name following his performance in the musical Bye Bye Birdie, which led to him winning a Tony Award in 1961.
He then had his own sitcom, “The Dick Van Dyke Show”. Van Dyke starred as Rob Petrie, a TV comedy writer balancing his career and family life in the suburbs, for which he won three Emmys.
The actor, who is known for playing Mary Poppins character Bert – the all-singing, all-dancing Cockney chimney sweep, said he still tries to dance.
He took up the starring role for Coldplay’s ‘ALL MY LOVE’ music video as he was preparing to turn 99, where he can be seen reminiscing about his life, and dancing barefoot with his wife.
Van Dyke told Good Morning America (GMA) that he plans to exceed his latest milestone explaining: “100 years is not enough. You want to live more.”
“I’ve got one game leg from, I don’t know what… I still try to dance.”
The actor certainly hasn’t shown signs that he may officially retire. The actor became the oldest-ever winner of a Daytime Emmy in 2024, for Guest Performance In A Daytime Drama Series for “Days of our Lives.”
Celebrations are taking place across the US for Van Dyke’s birthday, including a flash mob located in Malibu, which is where the actor lives.
It echoes the star’s 90th birthday, where a flash mob greeted him with songs from Mary Poppins in Los Angeles, and he joined them for a rendition of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”
He is also the subject of a new documentary and has released a book titled 100 Rules For Living To 100: An Optimist’s Guide To A Happy Life..
Van Dyke previously said his wife, make-up artist Arlene Silver, who is 46 years his junior, has helped to keep him young.
Silver, who married Van Dyke in a Malibu chapel in 2012, told GMA: “It’s like a privilege and an honour to take care of him and make him happy.”
Van Dyke has four children – Barry, Carrie, Christian and Stacy – with his first wife, Margie Willett, who he divorced in 1984 after 36 years of marriage.
He then had a 30-year partnership with Michelle Triola Marvin, who died in October 2009 at the age of 76.
Between 1961-66, the actor starred in the sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, which made him a TV star and also found success with the hit TV series Diagnosis: Murder, which ran from 1993 to 2001 and spawned a couple of TV films.
He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 1993, and then the Television Hall Of Fame in 1995.
In 2017, he received the Britannia Award for Excellence in Television and apologised to the members of Bafta “for inflicting on them the most atrocious Cockney accent in the history of cinema” with his portrayal of Bert in Mary Poppins.
He previously said that no one from the English cast told him there was anything wrong with the accent, so he was completely unaware of how bad it was.
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