The new documentary ‘Starring Dick Van Dyke’ honors the actor as he turns 100 through interviews with former cast mates and contemporaries.
Dick Van Dyke turns 100 on Saturday, an event so eagerly anticipated that for him not to do so would seem cosmically wrong. It may be generationally vain of me to imagine that the beauties of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Mary Poppins” are known and loved by those after their time, but as they remain available to watch and are still shared by parents with their children, it seems likely.
Although Van Dyke’s professional schedule isn’t what it was — a canceled public appearance in June made headlines, sending waves of concern throughout the nation — he has remained visible over the last decade in interviews and social media posts, often dancing or exercising, and the odd acting job. In 2023, he appeared on “The Masked Singer” as “The Gnome” and guested for a four-episode run on “Days of Our Lives” as a man with amnesia. (It won him — another — Emmy.) He marked his 99th birthday by appearing in a Coldplay video, shot at his Malibu home, dancing to “All My Love” as Chris Martin sings at the piano. (They went on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” together.) His latest book, “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life,” came out last month, following “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business” (2011) and “Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging” (2015).
Friday brings a PBS special, “Starring Dick Van Dyke,” appearing as part of the “American Masters” series — and who would deny that he has earned that title? (An unconnected film, “Dick Van Dyke 100th Celebration,” will play exclusively at Regent Theaters on Saturday and Sunday.) Directed by John Scheinfeld (“Reinventing Elvis: The ’68 Comeback,” “The U.S. vs. John Lennon”), it’s a celebration of a man and an artist easy to celebrate, a bringer of joy whose signature song — from “Bye Bye, Birdie, “ which made him a Broadway star and led to his becoming a movie star and a TV star — is “Put On a Happy Face.” Though the actor’s alcoholism is addressed here, in a long excerpt from a 1974 Dick Cavett interview — he’s been sober since 1972 — dark times are generally elided. The end of his first marriage, to Margie Willett, the mother of his four children, is expressed only by the words “drifting apart” and digitally erasing her from a family photo; it should be said here that Van Dyke has no official connection to this film and is not newly interviewed here.
Gathered together among the performance clips that are the main reason to watch the film are testimonies from famous friends and fans, which amount to: Van Dyke was a delight to know, to work with, or to watch.
