Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke is celebrating his 100th birthday. Van Dyke hit the century mark on Saturday, some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in \u201cMary Poppins\u201d and starred in his self-titled sitcom. Van Dyke won a Tony Award for \u201cBye Bye Birdie\u201d to go with a Grammy and four.<\/b>
\nComedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, hitting the century mark some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in \u201cMary Poppins\u201d and starred in his self-titled sitcom.
\u201cThe funniest thing is, it\u2019s not enough,\u201d Van Dyke said in an interview with ABC News at his Malibu, California home. \u201cA hundred years is not enough. You want to live more, which I plan to.\u201d
Other WRAL Top Stories
Van Dyke became one of the biggest actors of his era with \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show,\u201d which ran from 1961-66 on CBS; appeared with Andrews as a chimney sweep with a Cockney accent in the 1964 Disney classic \u201cMary Poppins\u201d and, in his 70s, played a physician-sleuth on \u201cDiagnosis: Murder.\u201d
Also a Broadway star, Van Dyke won a Tony Award for \u201cBye Bye Birdie\u201d to go with a Grammy and four Primetime Emmys. In 1963, he starred in the film version of \u201cBye Bye Birdie.\u201d
Just last year, he became the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy, for a guest role on the soap \u201cDays of Our Lives.\u201d
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’s gotten some perspective on how he used to play older characters.
\u201cYou know, I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous,\u201d he . „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, \u201c100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist\u2019s Guide to a Happy Life.\u201d He credited his wife, 54-year-old makeup artist and producer Arlene Silver, with keeping him young.
\u201cShe gives me energy. She gives me humor, and all kinds of support,\u201d he .
Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925, and grew up \u201cthe class clown\u201d in Danville, Illinois, while admiring and imitating the silent film comedians.
He he started acting when he was about 4 or 5 years old in a Christmas pageant. He said he was the baby Jesus.
\u201cI 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.\u201d
And what’s hard about being 100?
\u201cI miss movement,\u201d he . \u201cI’ve got one game leg from I don’t know what.“
„I still try to dance,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n