APNEWS.COM
Affable comedy acting legend Dick Van Dyke turns 100 years old
Dick Van Dyke accepts the award for outstanding guest performance in a daytime drama series for "Days of our Lives" during the 51st Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday, June 7, 2024, at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)2025-12-13T15:10:49Z Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, hitting the century mark some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins and starred in his self-titled sitcom.The funniest thing is, its not enough, Van Dyke said in an interview with ABC News at his Malibu, California home. A hundred years is not enough. You want to live more, which I plan to.Van Dyke became one of the biggest actors of his era with The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran from 1961-66 on CBS; appeared with Andrews as a chimney sweep with a Cockney accent in the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins and, in his 70s, played a physician-sleuth on Diagnosis: Murder.Also a Broadway star, Van Dyke won a Tony Award for Bye Bye Birdie to go with a Grammy and four Primetime Emmys. In 1963, he starred in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie. Just last year, he became the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy, for a guest role on the soap Days of Our Lives.In the 1970s, he found sobriety after battling alcoholism, and spoke out about it at a time when that was uncommon to do.Now that he has hit triple digits, Van Dyke said hes gotten some perspective on how he used to play older characters. You know, I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous, he told ABC News. Its not really that way. I dont know any other 100-year-olds, but I can speak for myself. He recently imparted wisdom about reaching the century mark in his book, 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimists Guide to a Happy Life. He credited his wife, 54-year-old makeup artist and producer Arlene Silver, with keeping him young.She gives me energy. She gives me humor, and all kinds of support, he told ABC News.Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925, and grew up the class clown in Danville, Illinois, while admiring and imitating the silent film comedians. He told ABC News he started acting when he was about 4 or 5 years old in a Christmas pageant. He said he was the baby Jesus.I made some kind of crack, I dont know what I said, but it broke the congregation up, he said. And I liked the sound of that laughter.And whats hard about being 100?I miss movement, he told ABC News. Ive got one game leg from I dont know what. I still try to dance, he said with a laugh.
0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 20 Views 0 previzualizare