Dick Van Dyke and Wife Arlene Silver Recall Meeting at 2007 SAG Awards: ‘Weren’t You in ‘Mary Poppins’?’
It’s been more than 60 years since Dick Van Dyke first danced on Broadway, but he’s still got the moves! In celebration of Valentine’s Day, he and wife Arlene Silver posted a video of themselves singing and dancing to “Everybody Loves a Lover,” a tune that was a hit for Doris Day in 1958.
Dick gives Arlene, 50, all the credit for his happiness and vitality at age 96. “We share an attitude,” he confides to Closer. “She can go with the flow. She loves to sing and dance, which we do almost every day. She’s just delightful.”
Their 46-year age gap hasn’t made Arlene any less effusive about her hubby. “He is the most perfect human being,” she gushes. “I’ve never met anyone so happy, so genuine, so amazing. He’s just like a happy pill.”
The pair met in 2007 at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Dick was there to present costar Julie Andrews with a lifetime achievement award, and he got to chatting with Arlene, a makeup artist, as she powdered his nose.
“He said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ The first thing I asked him was, ‘Weren’t you in Mary Poppins?’” recalls Arlene. “We got along immediately as friends, so it didn’t feel like he was so much older than me.”
Dick, who’d had two previous 30-plus-year relationships, admits that he never expected to get lucky in love again. He also worried that people would object to their May-December relationship.
“I thought there would be an outcry about a gold digger marrying an old man,” he admits, “but no one ever took that attitude.” The happy couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on Feb. 29.
Their “Everybody Loves a Lover” music video, which was posted to Arlene’s YouTube channel, also features the members of the Vantastix, an a cappella quartet that Dick put together a few year ago. “I love to harmonize, so that keeps me going,” Dick says. “It’s kind of my retirement amusement. I don’t play golf. I have more fun singing and dancing.”
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