Dick Van Dyke

Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925 in West Plains, Missouri), usually credited as Dick Van Dyke, is a famous American television and movie actor. He is most famous for his starring roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s and Murder as Dr. Mark Sloan in the 1990s.

Early days

Van Dyke grew up in Danville, Illinois, as the son of Loren Wayne "Cookie" Van Dyke, a traveling salesman for the Sunshine Biscuit Company with a talent for comedy, and Hazel McCord. As a child, he was inspired to go into show business by watching Laurel & Hardy films at the movie theater. After appearing in many high school plays and community theatre productions, Van Dyke enlisted in the Air Force during World War II. There he participated in stage shows and worked as a radio DJ. After hosting local comedy television shows in Atlanta and New Orleans, Van Dyke signed a contract with CBS in 1956. He appeared on numerous CBS game shows and talk shows, either as host or guest. He made his acting debut in an episode of The Phil Silvers Show. Van Dyke then left CBS for the Broadway stage. In 1960, he starred in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie. The show was a box-office success and he won a Tony Award.

Carl Reiner saw Van Dyke in Bye Bye Birdie and cast him in the role of Rob Petrie in the highly-rated and critically acclaimed CBS sitcom, The Dick Van Dyke Show. The show was about a staff of writers for The Alan Brady Show, a fictional TV variety show conceptually based on the 1950s hit, Your Show of Shows. The show divided its time between the office and home, making a star of a young Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, Laura. Reiner originally planned to star as Rob Petrie but after filming a pilot he realized he was wrong for the role. Reiner instead opted to play Alan Brady, the role loosely based on Sid Caesar. For the role of Rob Petrie, Van Dyke won three Emmy Awards. The Dick Van Dyke Show ran for five seasons.

Movies

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 elderly owner of the bank. His attempt at a Cockney accent (and his tendency to lapse into and out of it) was widely ridiculed (especially in the UK). 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 Cheree", won the Oscar for the film's songwriting team.

Van Dyke made several more comedy movies throughout the 1960s including What a Way to Go! with Shirley MacLaine, Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN with Nancy Kwan, Fitzwilly with Barbara Feldon, The Art of Love with James Garner and Elke Sommer, Never A Dull Moment with Edward G. Robinson, and Divorce American Style with Debbie Reynolds and Jason Robards, Jr.. Although most of his movies from this era were relatively unsuccessful, the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a worldwide success and is still fondly remembered today.

In later years, Van Dyke would complain, "I never made a good movie."

Dramatic roles and career comeback

In 1969, Van Dyke appeared in his first semi-dramatic role in the comedy-drama The Comic which was written and directed by Carl Reiner. Van Dyke plays a silent-film era comedian who struggles with alcoholism and depression. Reiner wrote the film especially for Van Dyke who would often talk of his admiration for silent film era comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Ben Turpin and his hero, Stan Laurel. He also began starring in a series of commercials as a spokesperson for Kodak.

In 1971, Van Dyke starred with Hope Lange in another sitcom called The New Dick Van Dyke Show. In it, he played Dick Preston, a local talk show host in Phoenix, Arizona. Van Dyke was living in Arizona at the time and the show was filmed there. Despite airing for three seasons, the show was not as popular as his previous series had been.

In 1974, Van Dyke received wide acclaim and an Emmy nomination for his role as an alcoholic businessman in the television movie The Morning After. Regarded by many as the most realistic television film ever made dealing with alcoholism, it is sometimes shown at treatment centers. The final scene in particular is regarded by many as chilling and unforgettable. It was at this time that Van Dyke admitted he had recently overcome a real-life drinking problem.

In 1975, he played another atypical role as murdering photographer in an episode of the popular series Columbo. Van Dyke returned to comedy in 1976 with the sketch comedy show Van Dyke and Company which also starred Andy Kaufman and Super Dave Osborne. Despite being cancelled after only three months, the show won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety Series, beating Saturday Night Live. In 1977, Van Dyke then joined the cast of The Carol Burnett Show after Harvey Korman left the show. Unfortunately, he was not able to generate the same chemistry with Burnett as Korman had and he left the show after three months. For the next decade, he appeared mainly in low-rated TV movies, the exception was another atypical role as a murdering judge on the first episode of the TV series Matlock in 1986 starring Andy Griffith. In 1988, Van Dyke returned with another sitcom called The Van Dyke Show which co-starred his son, Barry. The show was cancelled after just five episodes.

His career seemed essentially over by 1989 when Dick Van Dyke started a career comeback. First, he took a guest starring role on NBC's hit TV series The Golden Girls playing the beau of Bea Arthur's character Dorothy who decides to give up being a lawyer to become a circus clown. The role that earned him his first Emmy nomination since 1977. The next year in 1990, Van Dyke, whose usual role had been the amiable hero, took a small, but villainous turn as the crooked D.A Fletcher in Warren Beatty's movie Dick Tracy. Though his role in the movie was very small, he received positive reviews. The reviews he received for Tracy led him to star in a series of TV movies on CBS that became the foundation for his popular television drama, Murder, which ran from 1993 to 2001. (He first played the character, Dr. Mark Sloane, in an episode of Jake and the Fatman.)

He is due to appear in the new Ben Stiller film Night at the Museum set for release at the end of 2006.

Influence

Van Dyke was a great admirer of Stan Laurel and even gave the eulogy at his funeral. He also produced a TV special soon afterward, A Salute to Stan Laurel. He once met Laurel and told him he had copied a great deal from him. He said Laurel only laughed and said "I've noticed that".

Other interests

Van Dyke received a Grammy Award for his performance on the soundtrack to Mary Poppins.

Personal life

Dick Van Dyke is the older brother of actor Jerry Van Dyke, who is best known for his role on the TV series Coach. Dick's son Barry Van Dyke and grandson Carry Van Dyke are also actors: Barry, Carry and other Van Dyke relations and grandchildren acted with Dick on various episodes of the long-running Murder series.

He was married to Margie Willett from 1948 to 1984 (though they were separated several years before). She's the mother of his four children: Christian, Barry, Carrie Beth and Stacy, all of them married. They have given him seven grandchildren. He is currently living with Michelle Triola.

During The Dick Van Dyke Show, he also was fighting alcoholism, which he successfully conquered. He has also served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

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.

References

Van Dyke's 3D graphics involvement

External links

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