Dick Van Dyke
Birthday: 13 December 1925, West Plains, Missouri, USA
Birth Name: Richard Wayne Van Dyke
Height: 185 cm
Dick Van Dyke was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, to Hazel Victoria (McCord), a stenographer, and Loren Wayne Van Dyke, a salesman. His younger brother is entertainer Jerry Van D ...Show More
I asked Fred Astaire once when he was about my age if he still danced and he said 'Yes, but it hurts Show more
I asked Fred Astaire once when he was about my age if he still danced and he said 'Yes, but it hurts now.' That's exactly it. I can still dance too but it hurts now! I've always kept moving. I was at the gym at six this morning. Of course marrying a beautiful young woman has been a big help. There are so many years between us and we don't feel it. I'm emotionally immature and she's very wise for her age so we kind of meet in the middle. Hide
[about Mary Poppins (1964)] I thought Walt Disney hired me because I was such a great singer and dan Show more
[about Mary Poppins (1964)] I thought Walt Disney hired me because I was such a great singer and dancer. As it turns out, he had heard me in an interview talking about what was happening to family entertainment. I was decrying the fact that it seemed like no holds were barred anymore in entertainment . . . That's why he called me in, because I said something he agreed with. And I got the part. Hide
I never wanted to be an actor and to this day I don't. I can't get a handle on it. An actor wants to Show more
I never wanted to be an actor and to this day I don't. I can't get a handle on it. An actor wants to become someone else. I am a song-and-dance man and I enjoy being myself, which is all I can do. Hide
I've made peace with insecurity... because there is no security of any kind.
I've made peace with insecurity... because there is no security of any kind.
It's quite hard to act yourself all the time. My first wife, Margie, used to say she could see no di Show more
It's quite hard to act yourself all the time. My first wife, Margie, used to say she could see no difference between Rob [the husband he played on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) for five years] and me. She said 'You're not acting. You are exactly the same on screen as you are at home.' Hide
It took Walt twenty years to talk Travers [P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins novels] into giv Show more
It took Walt twenty years to talk Travers [P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins novels] into giving him the rights for the picture and then she fought him tooth and nail all the way through it. She hated me, she hated Julie Andrews, she didn't think either one of us were right. After the premiere she met Walt in the lobby and said, 'All the animation has to go.' Walt said, 'Pamela, the boat has sailed.' Hide
[on the death of Mary Tyler Moore]: There are no words. She was the best! We always said that we cha Show more
[on the death of Mary Tyler Moore]: There are no words. She was the best! We always said that we changed each other's lives for the better. Hide
[on turning down The Omen (1976)] My god, that was stupid. Gregory Peck got the part, but at that ti Show more
[on turning down The Omen (1976)] My god, that was stupid. Gregory Peck got the part, but at that time there was a lot of violence in it - people impaled on things. I was pretty puritan at the time, a goody-two-shoes, I felt I'd put myself in a position where the audience trusted me. I turned down several things for that reason - either taste or violence or sex or something. Hide
I've retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit.
I've retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit.
[on Donald J. Trump] He has been a magnet to all the racists and xenophobes in the country. I haven' Show more
[on Donald J. Trump] He has been a magnet to all the racists and xenophobes in the country. I haven't been this scared since the Cuban Missile Crisis. I think the human race is hanging in a delicate balance right now, and I'm just so afraid he will put us in a war. He scares me. Hide
I was a Laurel & Hardy nut. I got to know Laurel at the end of his life and it was a great thrill fo Show more
I was a Laurel & Hardy nut. I got to know Laurel at the end of his life and it was a great thrill for me. He left me his bow tie and derby and told me that if they ever made a movie about him, he'd want me to play him. Hide
In the best of all worlds the producers would take some responsibility for the kinds of things they' Show more
In the best of all worlds the producers would take some responsibility for the kinds of things they're putting out. Unfortunately, they don't. And then I-- they keep saying we can't have our First Amendment rights abridged and we can't have censorship. Well we had it back in the Hays days [Production Code Administration, headed by 'Will H. Hays', the official Hollywood censor office], in the Johnson office days. And I think they should--maybe the American people might bring it back if things get bad enough. Hide
People from the UK love to tease me. I invented a whole new dialect. I never could do a British acce Show more
People from the UK love to tease me. I invented a whole new dialect. I never could do a British accent, not even in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Hide
Last night CNN International CNN gave me ten minutes live to talk about Bernie Sanders who has been Show more
Last night CNN International CNN gave me ten minutes live to talk about Bernie Sanders who has been scantily covered by them in favor of the Donald J. Trump circus. It was pre-empted completely to cover another outburst by Trump. This pandering to the scandal hungry public is a total lack of responsible journalism. I accuse CNN of extreme bias. Hide
I think that cigarettes are worse. I think that nicotine ... I've heard heroin addicts and cocaine a Show more
I think that cigarettes are worse. I think that nicotine ... I've heard heroin addicts and cocaine addicts say it was nothing compared to getting off cigarettes. Hide
I've found a home here because actors have always said, 'He's really a dancer', and dancers said, 'N Show more
I've found a home here because actors have always said, 'He's really a dancer', and dancers said, 'No, no he's a singer', and singers said, 'No I think he's an actor.' I don't know, I was never that good at anything but I did a little bit of it all. I've never studied dancing but I've always loved to dance. I never sang anywhere except the shower and it took me forever to get into the high school choir. When I auditioned for Bye Bye Birdie (1963) I did a song and a little soft-shoe and for some reason they saw I could move. And I've never studied acting - which is maybe lucky otherwise I'd just be a copy of everybody else. Hide
I'm really in retirement. My career is over. I'm just playing now and having a great time. I like to Show more
I'm really in retirement. My career is over. I'm just playing now and having a great time. I like to keep busy, and I'm doing what's fun for me. Hide
I was an alcoholic for about twenty-five years. In the Fifties and Sixties, everybody had their mart Show more
I was an alcoholic for about twenty-five years. In the Fifties and Sixties, everybody had their martini, everybody smoked incessantly. The funny thing is that all through my twenties and early thirties I didn't drink at all. Then we moved to a neighborhood full of young families with the same age kids and everyone drank heavily, there were big parties every night. I would go to work with terrible hangovers which if you're dancing is really hard. I was in deep trouble, you get suicidal and think you just can't go on. I had suicidal feelings, it was just terrible. But then suddenly, like a blessing, the drink started not to taste good. I would feel a little dizzy and a little nauseous and I wasn't getting the click. Today I wouldn't want a drink for anything. But I do occasionally think of taking a nice drag. I've been on this gum for ten years and it's just as addictive but at least it's not hurting my lungs. (2013) Hide
But at the time, I thought I would come out, because there was such a strange perception about alcoh Show more
But at the time, I thought I would come out, because there was such a strange perception about alcoholism that people had serious character flaws, you know. They had weak wills or something. They had this image of, you know, a guy laying in on the street and skid row, whereas it can happen to normal, average middle-class guy. Hide
It was a marvelous relaxer . . . Jack Daniels (Tennessee Whiskey) became my good friend. Then someti Show more
It was a marvelous relaxer . . . Jack Daniels (Tennessee Whiskey) became my good friend. Then sometime in my early forties he turned on me. Hide
We had a little ranch way out in the middle of nowhere. My wife didn't like showbusiness - as most s Show more
We had a little ranch way out in the middle of nowhere. My wife didn't like showbusiness - as most spouses don't: they get shunted aside. But it was too soon for me. I could not afford either emotionally or financially to quit and retire. Not in my forties. We finally parted company because of that. And now another forty years have gone by and I've been very busy. I still am. Hide
I remember in the book that Caractacus was married. There was no love interest, no love story. So I Show more
I remember in the book that Caractacus was married. There was no love interest, no love story. So I think bringing Truly Scrumptious in works very well because we had assumed he was a widower. And they couldn't have picked a better Truly Scrumptious than Sally [Sally Ann Howes]. They came up with Sally Ann and I heard her voice, and it was the richest contralto. She auditioned with "The Lovely Lonely Man" and I thought, "My God, this girl is great!" and then she was stunningly beautiful. She loved those kids and they loved her, which I think comes across on the screen. They just thought a great deal of her and she spent a lot of time with them, you know, between shots - telling stories and playing games during all those long waiting periods. Hide
I think it's such a shame that [Walt Disney] didn't live to see computer animation, because he would Show more
I think it's such a shame that [Walt Disney] didn't live to see computer animation, because he would have had a good time with it . . . In those days it was before the blue screen. They used what was called yellow sulphur lighting--the screen was yellow, and we worked with that all day, and by the time the day was over you couldn't see anything . . . It was just an empty soundstage. And sometimes we didn't even have the music--we would just dance to a click rhythm. But I think technically it holds up today just as well as anything. Hide
Dick Van Dyke'S roles
