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Dick Van Dyke had to be reminded frequently that he was a star
The actor kept humble.
Even the best of us need a confidence boost every now and again, and that includes Dick Van Dyke. The actor has enjoyed a successful career spanning decades and all forms of entertainment. Van Dyke is a master of both stage and screen, and dare we say, a national treasure.
But even after Van Dyke won success in his series, The Dick Van Dyke Show, a show that bore his own name, the actor still stayed humble. "You have to keep telling this guy he's a star," said Morey Amsterdam, best known for playing Buddy Sorrell, during an interview with The Buffalo News. "He doesn't know it yet."
Even Carl Reiner, creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, had nothing but good things to say about him.
"He's the greatest single male performing talent working today," said Reiner. "He's so good it's sickening to us actors who watch him work every day. It's terrible to realize that no matter what you do, he can do it better. He's the jack of all trades - and master."
While Van Dyke was never good at recognizing his success, he was still aware of how shocked the public would be when he announced his intent to leave the entertainment industry behind. Still, despite the surprise, Van Dyke remained steadfast in his decision.
"I'm not turning my back on show business," said Van Dyke. "I've enjoyed every one of these twenty years and wouldn't change a minute of them. It's just that I want to devote the last half - I hope half - of my life to growing, changing, becoming a different person, one who does something for someone else's sake."
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seems. He taught Sunday school during the time of the Dick Van Dyke Show.
He would appear in local high schools PTA shows or staging of Bye Bye Birdie to help them raise
money, even decades after his kids had graduated. Carl Reiner loved humor from real life
and encouraged the cast to share their life stories, then using that for the onscreen characters.
I was floored by how much of Rob Petrie's life is actually Van Dyke's, and how their persona is
all but identical.
Though I doubt Rob Petrie would have disarmed and taken out a high on drugs and drunk
Red Foxx from murdering a member of the crew with a razor(he always had one on hand)
during rehearsals. Foxx mistakenly thought the man had insulted him, but life long gym rat
and army boxing champ Dick stopped him, resolved the situation...he explained that Red was the
nicest guy in the world, when sober.
The book is full of goodies like that, I highly recommend it. It was perfect to listen to as I
did work around the house. Gene Hackman is his cousin, I never heard that anywhere but
from Dick's bio.
and the news report - in the subtext - suggested he was very ill. His 99th birthday
is next month.