“100 years is not enough. You want to live more,” he said.
The veteran actor, beloved for classic roles in “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, was born on Dec 13, 1925, in West Plains, Missouri.
He developed an early love for show business after watching “Laurel and Hardy” films at his local cinema, an influence that later shaped his flair for physical comedy and expressive movement.
Van Dyke first found success as a radio announcer, which led to a contract with CBS. After a handful of now-forgotten television shows, he cemented his place as a household name with his breakout role in the Broadway musical “Bye Bye Birdie”, earning a Tony Award in 1961.
The role soon transitioned to film and helped launch a career that would span stage, television and cinema for more than seven decades.
Reflecting on his career, Van Dyke told US news show “Good Morning America” (GMA): “I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous, but it’s not really that way. I don’t know any other 100-year-olds, but I can speak for myself.”
Best known to many as Bert, the all-singing, all-dancing Cockney chimney sweep in “Mary Poppins”, Van Dyke said he still tries to dance. “I’ve got one game leg from, I don’t know what … I still try to dance,” he told GMA.
He has also credited movement and exercise for keeping his spirits high, once remarking in an interview that staying active was “the secret to feeling young”.
Celebrations are taking place across the United States for Van Dyke’s birthday, including a flash mob in Malibu, where the actor lives. Fans and fellow performers have also shared tributes online, praising his warmth, humour and enduring optimism.
He is the subject of a new documentary, “Starring Dick Van Dyke”, and has released a book titled “100 Rules For Living To 100: An Optimist’s Guide To A Happy Life”.
“The funny thing is, it’s not enough. 100 years is not enough. You want to live more, which I plan to,” Van Dyke said on GMA.
He has previously said his wife, make-up artist Arlene Silver – who is 46 years his junior – has helped keep him young. Silver, whom Van Dyke married 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. The couple divorced in 1984 after 36 years of marriage. He later shared a 30-year partnership with Michelle Triola Marvin, who died in October 2009 at age 76.
From 1961 to 1966, Van Dyke starred in the groundbreaking sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, which redefined television comedy and made him a TV icon. He later found renewed success with “Diagnosis: Murder”, which ran from 1993 to 2001 and spawned several TV films.
He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993 and the Television Hall of Fame in 1995.
In 2017, he received the Britannia Award for Excellence in Television, where he apologised to members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) “for inflicting on them the most atrocious Cockney accent in the history of cinema” with his portrayal of Bert in “Mary Poppins”.