Dick Van Dyke at 100

The Polish toast Sto Lat (One Hundred Years) no longer works for Dick Van Dyke, since he has reached that milestone. May God grant him many more!

From The Imaginative Conservative

By David Deavel, PhD

Van Dyke’s religion and politics are really to be found in entertainment. He thinks he never really gave up on his teen desire to be a minister, “—only the medium and the message has changed. I have still endeavored to touch people’s souls, to raise their spirits and put smiles on their faces.” That he’s done, and more so—may his image be shown for generations.

Dick Van Dyke turned 100 years old this month. Here David Deavel reflects on the movie and TV star’s 2011 autobiography. —Ed.

Dick Van Dyke’s new memoir puts it out front: he’s no genius. Instead, he’s been lucky personally and professionally. On the professional side this book is flawless: no soft-pedaling failures or 20-20 hindsight about his prospects; no easy vengeance on long-dead nemeses; no pedantic hints for aspiring performers; and no (thank God!) explanations about what makes jokes funny.

On the contrary, it has thankfulness for family and friends who gave him breaks and taught him the ropes. It also has respect for the great comedians and dancers from whom he learned. And it has the requisite humility to give credit where due, even in his greatest triumphs. The multiple-Emmy Award-winning Dick Van Dyke Show was his high-point, yet he credits the writers for its success.

Outside of entertainment, however, the tone is different, not surprising given the rather unconventional turns squeaky clean Dick Van Dyke made starting in the seventies. After all, who thinks of Dick Van Dyke as a bit player in the legal development of palimony? Born in 1925 in Danville, Illinois, Van Dyke had an ordinary childhood. After a brief stint as a track star, a doctor diagnosed a heart murmur, leaving Van Dyke to pursue other non-athletic activities. He contemplated the ministry in the way a teenager might, carrying a Bible around attempting “deep thoughts.” This phase soon passed. He joined the drama club.

His classmates included Donald O’Connor and future nightclub great Bobby Short. Close friend Bob Hackman’s annoying little brother Gene liked to tag along. Through careful study of comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy, Van Dyke’s skills made him a “big man on campus.” Dick being a hard act to follow, his younger brother Jerry was more famous for troublemaking.

Many pieces of Rob Petrie’s personal history depicted in The Dick Van Dyke Show are Van Dyke’s own. A radio disc jockey, he served in the Army Air Force—a terrible soldier but a great troop entertainer. After the war Van Dyke returned to the Danville radio job and high school friend Margie Willets. After trying advertising, he returned to radio and amateur acting. In 1947, a family friend offered him a job acting. Van Dyke headed for Californee.

His friend’s act parodied performers like Bing Crosby, Mary Martin, and Spike Jones. The hand-to-mouth life meant Van Dyke could afford to wed Margie only by getting married on the radio show “Bride and Groom” which paid for wedding expenses and a honeymoon. But Hollywood breaks opened up. At uber-hip Slapsy Maxie’s, however, Van Dyke realized their act wasn’t “sophisticated” enough. Lucille Ball was in the audience but neither she—nor anybody else—was laughing. Hollywood’s door shut.

But American second acts are common in show biz. The duo got booked elsewhere, ending up in Atlanta. Now Dick and Margie had three children and desired stability. Van Dyke eventually got to write, produce, and act his own hour-long show, outdrawing locally Arthur Godfrey’s national show. Next stop, big time.

Van Dyke headed to the CBS Morning Show. Despite some big mistakes (sending a dogsled team crashing through the studios by jokingly yelling “mush,” for instance) his rise continued. Though eventually fired, he continued to work and was discovered.

Carl Reiner saw Van Dyke on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie and cast him (over Johnny Carson) in his new sitcom about life as a comedy writer. Producer Sheldon Leonard decided the title: The Dick Van Dyke Show. Despite early ratings trouble, it became wildly popular. Van Dyke hit the movies doing Birdie’s film version and (more successful) Mary Poppins. In both media he showcased not only mastery of his beloved classic comedians but something he hadn’t studied at all. Fred Astaire’s answer to the dancer he liked best? “Dick Van Dyke.”

The Dick Van Dyke Show ended after only five seasons when Reiner ran out of steam. Van Dyke did television specials and movies, some successful (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), some not (Divorce American Style), but by the seventies he was burning out. His smoking and drinking habits had accelerated, and Margie wanted him to leave show business and spend time with her. After an abortive early retirement, he began an affair with his agent’s secretary, Michelle Triola, who had given up her career to live with actor Lee Marvin, gotten dumped, and sued him successfully for “palimony.” When the settlement was overturned, Van Dyke himself gave her the $104,000. Margie finally gave him the divorce he wanted, and he settled into a new life. On this aspect of his life Van Dyke does the most rationalizing. It is perhaps a sign of remaining guilt that the book’s photos include Margie, but no Michelle.

The guilt is perhaps inevitable. Van Dyke, a Presbyterian elder and Sunday School teacher until the late sixties, had drifted away from Christianity, in part, he claimed, because of racism in his congregation. He transferred his moral and spiritual urgency partly to social and political liberalism, working with civil rights leaders and campaigning for Clean Gene McCarthy. Of the many presidents he has met, Obama is his favorite, Clinton a close second. But liberal politics aren’t much more than a standard Hollywood accessory for Dick. He likes Clinton because he was “a lot of fun.”

Van Dyke found another hit with Diagnosis Murder, playing a crime sleuth doctor for ten seasons. Little kids have discovered him in the Night at the Museum movies and through voice work in Curious George. Margie died in 2007, Michelle in 2009, but he continues to work steadily.

Van Dyke’s religion and politics are really to be found in entertainment. He thinks he never really gave up on his teen desire to be a minister, “—only the medium and the message has changed. I have still endeavored to touch people’s souls, to raise their spirits and put smiles on their faces.” That he’s done, and more so—may his image be shown for generations. My own kids love him as Bert in Mary Poppins. I won’t soon forget their delight as they were watching the cast list at the end of the movie and discovered that the ancient, doddering banker was also played by the same guy who played Bert.

Some people will marvel at the Reverend Van Dyke’s continuing luckiness. Now the age of the doddering banker in Mary Poppins, he is not only still working, but, according to news reports, newly married a woman who’s thirty-nine. I don’t begrudge him his success, but I’m saddened it seems to have led him away from Christian truth. I wish he could see that behind his luck is something bigger called blessing. My kids and I love him always, but for Van Dyke, as for all of us, the only audience that really matters in the end is God.

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Reprinted with the gracious permission of Gilbert.

The featured image, uploaded by Gage Skidmore, is a photograph, “Dick Van Dyke speaking with attendees at the 2024 Phoenix Fan Fusion at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.” This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.