Dick Van Dyke
Richard Wayne “Dick” Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He is best known for his starring roles in the films Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the television series The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis Murder.
Van Dyke began his film career by reprising his stage role in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie in 1963. Although Van Dyke was unhappy with the adaptation because the focus was shifted to Ann-Margret’s character, the film was a major success. He followed that up with Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins in 1964, in which he played Bert, a Cockney chimney sweep, and also, in heavy disguise, the bank’s elderly chairman, credited in that role as “Nackvid Keyd” (at the end of the credits, the letters unscramble into “Dick Van Dyke”). Van Dyke’s attempt at a cockney accent was cited as one of the worst film accents in a 2003 poll by movie magazine Empire. But the film was very popular and innovative and also showed his versatility as a singer and dancer. One of his showcase songs, “Chim Chim Cher-ee”, won the Oscar for the Sherman Brothers, the film’s songwriting team.
Van Dyke made several more comedy movies throughout the 1960s including What a Way to Go!, Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., Fitzwilly, The Art of Love, Never a Dull Moment, and Divorce American Style. Although most of his movies from this era were relatively unsuccessful, the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a worldwide success. In later years, Van Dyke would complain that he had “never made a good movie.”
Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri to Loren (nickname “Cookie”) and Hazel (née McCord) Van Dyke, but grew up in Danville, Illinois. He is of Dutch descent on his father’s side and Scottish descent on his mother’s side. He is the older brother of actor Jerry Van Dyke, who is best known for his role on the TV series Coach.
Van Dyke married Margie Willett in 1948, with whom he had four children: Christian (Chris), Barry, Carrie Beth and Stacy. They divorced in 1984 after a long separation. Van Dyke’s son Barry Van Dyke and grandson Carey Van Dyke are also actors; both, along with other Van Dyke relations and 
grandchildren, appeared in various episodes of the long-running Diagnosis: Murder series. All of Van Dyke’s children are married, and he has seven grandchildren. His son Chris served as district attorney for Marion County in the 1980s. Among his cases was the so-called I-5 Killer, Randall Woodfield. Van Dyke resides with longtime companion Michelle Triola.
In 1987, his granddaughter Jessica Van Dyke died from Reye’s Syndrome, which compelled him to do a series of television commercials to raise public awareness of the danger to children. He is still the National Spokesman of the National Reye’s Syndrome Foundation.
In 1970, he published “Faith, Hope and Hilarity: a Child’s Eye View of Religion” a book of humorous anecdotes based largely on his experiences as a Sunday School teacher.
Van Dyke is a computer animation enthusiast and has displayed some of his CGI work at trade shows. This interest is referred to in the 2004 TV movie The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited, which shows that Rob Petrie has also become a CGI hobbyist. For a long time he used an Amiga 4000 with a Video Toaster for creating his CG work.
As an a cappella enthusiast, Van Dyke has sung in a group called “The Vantastix” since September, 2000. The Quartet has performed several times in Los Angeles as well as on Larry King Live, The First Annual TV Land Awards, and sung the National anthem at three Los Angeles Lakers games including a nationally televised NBA Finals performance on NBC. Van Dyke was made an honorary member of the Barbershop Harmony Society in 1999.
