Dick Van Dyke turned 100 on December 13, 2025
Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday on December 13, hitting the century mark some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins and starred in his self-titled sitcom.
“The funniest thing is, it’s not enough,” Van Dyke said in an interview with ABC News at his Malibu, California, home. “A hundred years is not enough. You want to live more, which I plan to.”
As part of the celebration of Van Dyke’s birthday this weekend, theaters around the country are showing a new documentary about his life, Dick Van Dyke: 100th Celebration.
Van Dyke became one of the biggest actors of his era with The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran from 1961 to 1966 on CBS; appeared with Andrews as a chimney sweep with a Cockney accent in the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins; and, in his 70s, played a physician-sleuth on Diagnosis: Murder.
Also a Broadway star, Van Dyke won a Tony Award for Bye Bye Birdie, to go with a Grammy and four Primetime Emmys. In 1963, he starred in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie.
Just last year, he became the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy, for a guest role on the soap Days of Our Lives.
In the 1970s, he found sobriety after battling alcoholism, and spoke out about it at a time when that was uncommon to do.
Now that he has hit triple digits, Van Dyke said he has gained some perspective on how he used to play older characters.
“You know, I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous,” he told ABC News. “It’s not really that way. I don’t know any other 100-year-olds, but I can speak for myself.”
He recently imparted wisdom about reaching the century mark in his book, 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life. He credited his wife, 54-year-old makeup artist and producer Arlene Silver, with keeping him young.
“She gives me energy. She gives me humor, and all kinds of support,” he told ABC News.
Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925, and grew up “the class clown” in Danville, Illinois, while admiring and imitating silent film comedians.
He told ABC News he started acting when he was about 4 or 5 years old in a Christmas pageant, saying he was the baby Jesus.
“I made some kind of crack, I don’t know what I said, but it broke the congregation up,” he said. “And I liked the sound of that laughter.”
