Editor’s Note: A earlier model of this story was printed in December 2024.
The phrase “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” has never proven more accurate than with respect to legendary actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke, who turns 100 on Saturday.
The momentous occasion comes after a notable several years for the “Mary Poppins” actor, whose passion for comedy and performing has shown no signs of aging.
Van Dyke often appears as part of Vandy Camp, a carnival-like performance troupe that includes his wife Arlene Silver, in Malibu, California near their home. The group features dancing, a cappella and songs from the iconic star’s oeuvre, together with hits from his Sixties musical movies “Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Vandy Camp and Van Dyke usually associate themselves with charities, serving to native causes in Malibu and Los Angeles as a part of their programming.
A brand new documentary celebrating Van Dyke’s life, titled “Dick Van Dyke: A 100th Celebration,” will also be in theaters Saturday and Sunday.
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It options enlightening interviews with Van Dyke and several other of his most well-known costars and colleagues – together with the late Betty White, Carl Reiner, Chita Rivera and Mary Tyler Moore. It tracks his beginnings, success on the Broadway stage in exhibits like “Bye, Bye Birdie,” and historic contributions on each the small and silver screens.
The legend prefers to keep busy.
In 2023, Van Dyke lent his voice to “The Simpson” taking part in himself, and he additionally made a wildly sudden appearance on the Season 9 premiere of “The Masked Singer.” The present’s oldest contestant ever, Van Dyke was masked as Gnome, and sang a rendition of Billie Holiday’s “When You’re Smiling.”
Then final 12 months, the Emmy-winner appeared within the music video for the Coldplay music “All My Love,” through which he was seen dancing barefoot, singing alongside Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and even performing some bodily comedy.
Filmed at Van Dyke’s residence, the video is interspersed with previous images and props from the beloved entertainer’s seven-decade profession, together with publicity stills alongside Mary Tyler Moore for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and certainly one of his 4 Primetime Emmy statuettes. (Earlier that 12 months, Van Dyke made history as the oldest Daytime Emmy winner ever, nabbing a statuette for a visitor position on 4 episodes of “Days of Our Lives.”)
At one level, Van Dyke remarks that his favourite lyrics in “All My Love” – off of Coldplay’s tenth studio album “Moon Music” – are “Until I die, let me hold you if you cry.” In an interview, he shares, “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, that I’m going to be alright.”
Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver in Coldplay’s 2024 music video for “All My Love.” – Atlantic Music Group
The funnyman additionally displayed his still-sharp humorousness, when an interviewer asks him within the video to shut his eyes and take into consideration all of the those that have meant one thing to him over the course of his life. After a beat along with his eyes closed, Van Dyke says, “I’m too old for this, I’ll pass out and go to sleep” as he play-acts nodding off in his chair.
Days after the music video’s launch, Van Dyke was pressured to flee his home as a result of the Franklin Fire, which affected components of Malibu roughly one month earlier than the Palisades Fire that happened in January.
“I think I’m one of those lucky people who got to do for a living what I would have done anyway,” Van Dyke remarked in final 12 months’s Coldplay clip, as scenes from his display screen profession performed. “When you think how lucky I am – I got to do what I do, play and act silly.”
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