‘I loved portraying old men, and since first reading the script, I had been secretly eyeing that part …’
In this month’s “Mary Poppins Returns,” Dick Van Dyke plays a surprisingly nimble elderly London banker — who bears an uncanny resemblance to the elderly Mr. Dawes he played in the original 1964 film “Mary Poppins.”
The 92-year-old actor, who’s best know for playing the “step-in-time” chimney sweep Bert in the Walt Disney classic, has said that he went to great lengths — and his own personal expense — to land the bonus role in the film.
“I loved portraying old men, and since first reading the script, I had been secretly eyeing that part, which included the song ‘Fidelity Fiduciary Bank,’” the actor wrote in his 2011 memoir, “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.
