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Dick Van Dyke Reveals What Iconic Hollywood Roles He Passed on During Legendary Hollywood Career
As Dick Van Dyke approached his 98th birthday this month, he resolved to make the most of every moment. “I realize I don’t have a future, which makes me much more eager to live in the present,” the legendary performer exclusively told Closer.
Dick may not be in the habit of looking back, but his admirers feel differently. After all, he has brought laughter and delight to fans for more than six decades. To mark his latest milestone, a celebration of his career highlights, Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic, will air December 21 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. “The emphasis will be about the music and everything he touched — from Bye Bye Birdie to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Mary Poppins,” executive producer Craig Plestis, who rounded up a who’s who of entertainers to pay tribute to Dick in this two-hour special, tells Closer. “Unlike any other performer alive today, he really is one of the last living legends.”
Dick is also one of the best loved. “Out of everyone I’ve ever met in Hollywood, he’s the nicest man,” says Plestis. “He’s a gentleman, he wants to do good, he wants to do family-friendly programming, and he’s just a good person. It’s nice to see one of the good guys last so long.”
Dick, who grew up in Illinois and served as a radio announcer during World War II, got serious about his work after his first of four children, Christian, 73, was born in 1950. He is also father to Barry, 72, Carrie Beth, 62, and Stacy, 60. “I think if I hadn’t had kids, I would still be back in my hometown,” said the star, who only began singing and dancing in his 30s. “I was like a lot of guys from the Depression who said, ‘My kids are going to have it better than I did.’”
Dick made his debut on the Great White Way in 1959 and landed the lead role in Broadway’s musical Bye Bye Birdie the following year. That success led to a move west and a starring role as comedy writer Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which aired from 1961 to 1966. “It was easy doing a series because I was home every night with the kids. It was just like having a regular job,” explained Dick, who made movies, including Mary Poppins and the big-screen version of Bye Bye Birdie, during his breaks. He often brought his family on location with him, noting that they were in England for nearly a year making 1968’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. “We weren’t separated that much,” he said.
Dick noted that throughout his career, he has “lucked out” with his leading ladies. Mary Tyler Moore, who was just 24 when she began playing Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, was easy on the eyes and a quick learner. “We got where we could read each other’s minds,” he said. Dick also had warm relationships with Mary Poppins co-star Julie Andrews, whom he called “talented and fun,” and Carol Burnett, whose variety series Dick joined in 1977. “Carol and I knew each other from the ’50s, when we were both doing TV’s Pantomime Quiz for $200 to pay for groceries,” Dick said. “We’ve been friends for a long, long time.”
As his star rose, Dick had the opportunity to meet and befriend some of his childhood idols, including Stan Laurel, of the famed comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton. “Laurel was just a sweet gentleman. I used to pepper him with questions. He always called me Dickie,” he recalled. “Buster was very shy. I was sitting with his wife in the living room at his house, and I saw him wandering around outside, looking in the windows. Finally, he burst into the room. He had on that flat hat and a ukulele and he was singing.” Dick was asked to give eulogies at the funerals of both legends in the mid-1960s. “That was a great honor,” he said.
Of course, it has all come full circle. Today, a generation of funny people look up to Dick as their idol and inspiration. “I told Jim Carrey he stole my act. I used to do all that kind of eccentric movement,” said Dick. “He just laughed. He was pleased.”
Despite his lasting influence on entertainment, Dick has some career regrets. He was just a kid when 1939’s The Wizard of Oz was released, but he wishes he could have sung and danced as Scarecrow. Dick also would have loved to play the title character in the 1971 movie musical Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
He also regrets turning down some more surprising projects. “I passed up a chance to work with Cary Grant,” Dick revealed. “I was busy at the time. I thought I didn’t want to do a light romantic comedy.”
He also had second thoughts about The Omen. Dick had been asked to play devil spawn Damien’s adopted father in that supernatural thriller, but said no. “It was the violence. Somebody gets impaled. I always tried to steer clear of that,” said Dick. The film, which wound up starring Gregory Peck, became one of the highest-grossing movies of 1976.
There are other films Dick felt right to have passed on, like Cat Ballou, the 1965 comedy-western starring Jane Fonda that won an Academy Award for actor Lee Marvin. “If you read the script, it was just terrible,” Dick confided. “He made it interesting. I never could’ve done what he did.”
He’s also proud that he’s still in demand. This year, Dick competed as Gnome on The Masked Singer, played an amnesiac on Days of Our Lives, and voiced a cameo on the animated comedy The Simpsons. And he’s not done. “I’m old enough to do King Lear, so I might take a shot at Shakespeare,” he said, attributing his longevity to an eternally youthful spirit. “Emotionally, I’m about 13,” Dick said. “I didn’t know I was going to be as lucky as I have been. I just hoped to make a living.”
