Richard Wayne Van Dyke
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Dick Van Dyke won a Tony Award in 1961 for Bye Bye Birdie and earned four Emmy Awards for The Dick Van Dyke Show. He starred in Mary Poppins 1964 and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 1968. After overcoming alcoholism, he returned to television with Diagnosis Murder in 1993. At age 99, he continues to be active in entertainment.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Dick Van Dyke — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Dick Van Dyke by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Dick Van Dyke — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
On December 13, 1925, Hazel McCord and Loren Wayne Van Dyke had their first child, Dick Van Dyke, born in West Plains, Missouri. He grew up in Danville, Illinois, and attended Danville High School. At 16, he started working as a radio announcer at a local station, reading news and spinning records. During World War II, he served as a radio announcer after being rejected initially for being underweight. He also worked in advertising and as a disc jockey before acting.
In 1960, Dick Van Dyke won a Tony Award for Bye Bye Birdie. He reprised the role in the 1963 film adaptation. That same year, he began playing Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor. He danced and sang in Disney’s Mary Poppins 1964 and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 1968, despite starting dance lessons at age 34. After a career lull and battle with alcoholism in the 1970s, he returned to television with Diagnosis Murder 1993–2001, playing Dr. Mark Sloan. His performance as the district attorney in Dick Tracy 1990 helped revive his film career.
Van Dyke married Marjorie Ann Terrell on the radio show Bride and Groom in February 1948; the show paid for the rings and honeymoon. The couple lived in their car briefly due to poverty. They had four children: Barry, Carrie Beth, Christian, and Stacy. He later separated from Margie in the 1970s and began a long-term relationship with Michelle Triola, which lasted from 1976 until her death in 2009. He married makeup artist Arlene Silver in 2012. He overcame alcoholism in the 1970s and quit smoking after fifty years.
Van Dyke’s role as Bert in Mary Poppins is still remembered for his famously inaccurate Cockney accent, which coined the term Dick Van Dyke accent. His sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show influenced generations of comedians and set a standard for workplace comedies. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2013 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993. He is remembered for his physical comedy, musical talent, and warmth on screen.
The complete filmography of Dick Van Dyke — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Dick Van Dyke — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Dick Van Dyke — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I’ve Retired so Many Times Now It’s Getting to Be a Habit.
I Never Wanted to Be an Actor and to This Day I Don’t. I Can’t Get a Handle on It. an Actor Wants to Become Someone Else. I Am a Song-and-dance Man and I Enjoy Being Myself, Which Is All I Can Do.
I’ve Made Peace with Insecurity… Because There Is No Security of Any Kind.
But at the Time, I Thought I Would Come Out, Because There Was Such a Strange Perception About Alcoholism That People Had Serious Character Flaws, You Know. They Had Weak Wills or Something. They Had This Image Of, You Know, a Guy Laying in on the Street and Skid Row, Whereas It Can Happen to Normal, Average Middle-class Guy.
I Think That Cigarettes Are Worse. I Think That Nicotine … I’ve Heard Heroin Addicts and Cocaine Addicts Say It Was Nothing Compared to Getting off Cigarettes.
I’m Really in Retirement. My Career Is Over. I’m Just Playing Now and Having a Great Time. I Like to Keep Busy, and I’m Doing What’s Fun for Me.
We Had a Little Ranch Way Out in the Middle of Nowhere. My Wife Didn’t Like Showbusiness – as Most Spouses Don’t: They Get Shunted Aside. but It Was Too Soon for Me. I Could Not Afford Either Emotionally or Financially to Quit and Retire. Not in My Forties. We Finally Parted Company Because of That. and Now Another Forty Years Have Gone by and I’ve Been Very Busy. I Still Am.
I Asked Fred Astaire Once When He Was About My Age If He Still Danced and He Said ‘Yes, but It Hurts Now.’ That’s Exactly It. I Can Still Dance Too but It Hurts Now! I’ve Always Kept Moving. I Was at the Gym at Six This Morning. of Course Marrying a Beautiful Young Woman Has Been a Big Help. There Are so Many Years Between Us and We Don’t Feel It. I’m Emotionally Immature and She’s Very Wise for Her Age so We Kind of Meet in the Middle.
I Was a Laurel & Hardy Nut. I Got to Know Laurel at the End of His Life and It Was a Great Thrill for Me. He Left Me His Bow Tie and Derby and Told Me That If They Ever Made a Movie About Him, He’d Want Me to Play Him.
My Whole Generation Has Disappeared on Me. My Contemporaries, Not in Talent but in Age, Were Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon, Rock Hudson. All Gone.
Last Night CNN International CNN Gave Me Ten Minutes Live to Talk About Bernie Sanders Who Has Been Scantily Covered by Them in Favor of the Donald J. Trump Circus. It Was Pre-empted Completely to Cover Another Outburst by Trump. This Pandering to the Scandal Hungry Public Is a Total Lack of Responsible Journalism. I Accuse CNN of Extreme Bias.
People in the UK Love to Rib Me About My Accent, I Will Never Live It Down. They Ask What Part of England I Was Meant to Be from and I Say It Was a Little Shire in the North Where Most of the People Were from Ohio. I Was Working with an Entire English Cast and Nobody Said a Word, Not Julie, Not Anybody Said I Needed to Work on It so I Thought I Was Alright.
I Appreciate This Opportunity to Apologize to the Members of Bafta for Inflicting on Them the Most Atrocious Cockney Accent in the History of Cinema.
I Almost Killed Myself Stopping. I Got the Gum and I Was Chewing the Gum and I Was Wearing the Patch … My Heart Rate Was About 140 All the Time. Thank God I Survived That.
I Would Like to Say a Word About Age. I’m 15 Years Older Than Bernie. I’ve Always Admired Bernie and I’ve Followed His Career. He’s Never Been – to Me – a Career Politician. He’s Just a Patriot Who Worked as Hard as He Could.
I’m Dick Van Dyke and I’m a Very Enthusiastic Supporter of Bernie Sanders. the Age Question Keeps Coming Up. I Know That I’m 20 Years Older Than Bernie. I Have All My Marbles! I Could Run for Office If I Wanted To. so I Don’t Think Age – It Really Doesn’t Matter, Except for His Experience and the Years He’s Put In. I Can’t Understand Why, According to the Polls, He’s Having Problems with Older Citizens, Like Me. Why Wouldn’t an Older Citizen Vote for Somebody with That Kind of a Record, and That Kind of Experience and Honesty? It Just Doesn’t Make Sense to Me That He’s Not Getting My Generation. and I Want to Urge My Generation to Get Out and Vote for Him, Please.
Another Four Years of the Current Administration and We Won’t Have Democracy Anymore. Bernie Has Been Consistent with His Policies Ever Since I Met Him When He Was in the Senate. He Never Has Changed His Attack Because of Outside Pressure from the Outside or When He Felt the Wind Was Blowing in Another Way. He Stuck with Who He Is and What He Believes In. I Think Somebody Younger Like Bernie, Is Just a Perfect Candidate. Yeah, I Think He’ll Be Around a Long Time.
We Were Making Dinner One Night and After Taking a Sip of Wine, I Put the Glass Down and Said: ‘Boy, That’s Making Me Ill.’ from Then On, My Desire to Drink Vanished.
Both of the Cable Network Stations Printed Headlines, ‘Corrupt, Our Supreme Court Justice System Is Corrupt’. and Then Nothing. Silence. Not Another Word … They Dropped the Subject as If It Had Been Squelched. I’m Beginning to Feel a Little Manipulated.
Our Supreme Court Has Delayed Any Decision About Our President’s Immunity and at the Same Time They’ve Stalled Everything. Donald Trump’s Path to the White House Is Pretty Clear Now.
I’m Very, Very Worried. No Kidding, in Every Respect. What’s Happening with Our Weather? No One Knows – One Hurricane, Tornado After Another. There Seems to Be Something Wrong with People. People, Instead of Going to the Ballot Box, Are Rioting for No Reason, and It Doesn’t Make Any Difference.
I’m Going to Support Biden. I’ve Got All My Marbles, and I’m Old Enough to Be His Father. I’m Actually Old Enough in Years to Be His Father. so I’m Not Worried About It.
I Met Joe Biden. and I Said, ‘I Used to Be as Tall as You Are.’ He Said, ‘I Used to Have Hair Like You.’ I Liked Him Right Away.
Russia Is Poised Along the Ukraine Border with Nuclear Weapons. China Has Already Announced It’s Going to Take Taiwan Back. I Think We Are on the Verge of Maybe the End. I’m That Worried About It.
Let Us Be Ashamed to Live Without That Victory.
There Will Be Moments of Violence and Expressions of Hatred and an Ugly Echo of Intolerance, but These Are the Clinging Vestiges of a Decayed Past, Not the Harbingers of the Better, Cleaner Future. to Those Who Tell Us That the Inequality of the Human Animal Is a Necessary Evil, We Must Respond by Simply Saying That First, It Is Evil but It Is Not Necessary. We Prove It by Reaffirming Our Faith. We Prove It by Having Faith in Our Affirmations.
I’m Acutely Aware That I Could Go Any Day Now, but I Don’t Know Why, It Doesn’t Concern Me, I’m Not Afraid of It. I Have That Feeling Totally Against Anything Intellectual I Have, That I’m Going to Be Alright. It Certainly Is a Feeling of Caring About the Welfare and the Life of the Other Person as Much as You Care for Yourself.
I Think I’m One of Those Lucky People Who Got to Do for a Living, to Do What I Would’ve Done Anyway. When You Think How Lucky I Am, I Got to Do What I Do, Play and Act Silly.
Little-known facts about Dick Van Dyke — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Dick Van Dyke and his wife Margie married on the radio show Bride and Groom, which covered the cost of rings, honeymoon, and appliances. The couple was so poor after the wedding that they lived in their car for a while.
Van Dyke overcame alcoholism in the 1970s.
He was rescued from his Jaguar as it burned on the Ventura Freeway in Los Angeles, California, on August 19, 2013.
Though praised for his dancing in Mary Poppins 1964 and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 1968, Van Dyke had no dance training and started dancing at age 34.
His attempt at a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins is so infamous that a Dick Van Dyke accent is slang for an American’s failed British accent. He remains popular in the United Kingdom despite this.
For 16 years, he received a lemon cake every Christmas from actor Charles Bronson, who lived nearby in Malibu.
Van Dyke says his most memorable role is Bert the chimney-sweep in Mary Poppins 1964.
During The Dick Van Dyke Show, he had a crush on Mary Tyler Moore, who played his TV wife.
His comic inspiration was Stan Laurel. Van Dyke looked up his phone number, called him, and they became close friends. Van Dyke delivered Laurel’s eulogy.
He tried to enlist as a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II but was initially rejected for being underweight. After three tries, he barely made it and served as a radio announcer without leaving the United States.
He almost graduated from Danville High School in Danville, Illinois in 1944, but later received his diploma at age 78 in 2004.
Rob Petrie, his character on The Dick Van Dyke Show, ranked #22 on TV Guide’s list of the 50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time in 2004.
Buster Keaton and Stan Laurel were his comedy idols. Both became fans of his television series.
He beat out Johnny Carson for the role of Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
He played Lionel Jeffries’ son in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 1968, even though Jeffries was six months younger.
He helped his former co-star Mary Tyler Moore get her own sitcom in the 1970s.
Before acting, Van Dyke was a Sunday school teacher and elder at a Presbyterian church, ministering every Sunday.
He guest-starred on Matlock with Andy Griffith; 11 years later, Griffith returned the favor on Diagnosis Murder.
He smoked heavily for 50 years—up to two packs a day—and quit using gum and patches, calling it harder than quitting drinking.
Before becoming an actor, he worked in advertising and as a disc jockey.
He did not begin dancing until age 34 and did not appear in his first movie until age 36.
According to his book Those Funny Kids: A Treasury of Classroom Laughter, he reached 6 feet 1 inch by age 11.
He created most of his own comedy routines and physical shtick on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 25, 1993. His name was initially misspelled VANDYKE. He drew a slash between VAN and DYKE, and the star was corrected soon after.
On The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, he claimed he once fell asleep on a surfboard, drifted out to sea, and was rescued by a pod of porpoises that pushed him back to shore.
His acting debut was playing baby Jesus in a church Christmas pageant; he cried throughout.
He is the older brother of entertainer Jerry Van Dyke.
Though now a committed non-smoker, he used to smoke 20–40 cigarettes daily.
He made a television comeback after 27 years with Diagnosis Murder in 1993.
While a struggling actor, he often hosted game shows, including Mother’s Day 1958 and Laugh Line 1959, but turned down The Price Is Right.
By the late 1980s, his career seemed over, but his role as the district attorney in Dick Tracy 1990 led to Diagnosis Murder, a major comeback at age 67.
His mother, Hazel McCord Van Dyke, passed away in 1994 at age 95.
His favorite episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show is Where Did I Come From? 1962.
The third season of The New Dick Van Dyke Show moved from Phoenix to Hollywood, improving ratings, but he canceled it because he disliked working away from home and did not want to continue without Carl Reiner.
His son Barry and grandson Carey worked with him on Diagnosis Murder. Sons Barry and Christian appeared in The Dick Van Dyke Show episode The Talented Neighborhood 1962.
He had a brief stint as a television weatherman in New Orleans, Louisiana.
His Diagnosis Murder co-star Charlie Schlatter reprised his role on The Sopranos in 2000.
Van Dyke was born just six months after his parents’ wedding. He learned at age 18 that his birth date was December 1925, not March 1926 as initially told; he also discovered he had been conceived out of wedlock.
He met makeup artist Arlene Silver at the SAG Awards in 2006 and married her six years later.
He was close friends with The Dick Van Dyke Show co-star Mary Tyler Moore.
He dabbled in computer animation since the 1980s, using Newtek’s Lightwave 3D to create a CG version of himself that danced with him on The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited 2004.
His first job was as a radio announcer at a Danville, Illinois station at age 16, doing news and spinning records.
After his divorce from Margie Willett, he remained close friends with her.
He is a fan of the sitcom The Office US version.
His hobbies include golfing, sailing, spending time with family, dancing, traveling, comedy, playing piano, using the computer, Bible study, praying, and singing.
He won a Tony Award in 1961 for Bye, Bye Birdie and a Grammy for the Mary Poppins soundtrack.
In July 1999, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America SPEBSQSA made him an honorary life member at their convention in Anaheim, California. He has sung in the a cappella quartet The Vantastix since 2000, releasing a children’s album in 2008.
He resided with Michelle Triola from 1976 until her death in 2009. In his autobiography, he admits the final cause of his divorce was giving Triola the six-figure sum she had unsuccessfully sued Lee Marvin for in her infamous palimony case.
He accepted the role of Dr. Mark Sloan on Diagnosis Murder after his son Barry called and after a guest spot on Jake and the Fatman.
His Cockney accent in Mary Poppins was so heavily criticized that it may have cost him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination the following year.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Dick Van Dyke.
Celebrities similar to Dick Van Dyke — same craft, ranked by reach.
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