Posted on 12/13/2022 9:37:38 AM PST by NeverCheney
appy Birthday to Dick Van Dyke! Born on December 13, 1925, the actor is turning in 97 today and fans are celebrating his birthday across social media!
Mr. Van Dyke is known for many years of acting, which started in 1947 in nightclubs. Then he went on to appear in numerous television shows and films including Disney’s famous “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”
(Excerpt) Read more at piratesandprincesses.net ...
When the original version of the game show “The Price Is Right” was being developed in the late 1950s, Dick Van Dyke was offered the job as host, but turned it down. (They then hired Bill Cullen.) Van Dyke told his wife he didn’t thing viewers would be interested in watching a show where people tried to guess the price of various items. That decision changed to course of television history. Had he taken the job, he would not have been available to play Rob Petrie on what was originally titled “Head of the House.” The second choice to play comedy writer Rob Petrie was a young comedian named Johnny Carson. He, in turn, would not have been available to take over as the host of The Tonight Show. Mary Tyler Moore, although somewhat younger than Van Dyke, was cast as his wife Laura because it was felt they had the right chemistry together. They may not have felt that way if Carson played Rob, resulting in another actress playing Laura. The careers of these three major stars would have taken a vastly different direction if Dick Van Dyke had accepted the job as host for The Price Is Right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Van_Dyke#Military_service
In 1944, Van Dyke left high school in his senior year to join the United States Army Air Forces for pilot training during World War II.
You said he was 68 in 2004. Yet he was born in 1925. That doesn’t add up.
I read somewhere that he drank excessively during the DVD Show years.
Imagine how healthy he’d be now if he’d taken better care of himself.
My folks were kids when that show was popular, but I’ve seen every episode and loved them all. Favorite, hard to say. The walnuts and planet Twilo? The anxiety about a switched baby? Or Laura’s toe stuck in the tub faucet. Or when she couldn’t resist opening a package and that thing inflated.
All good.
I saw Bye Bye Birdie over and over again. Albert and his mama. LOL!
Did6he come out as a HUGE DEMOCRAT YEARS AGO?
You are correct. He was 78, and it says as much in the article linked to footnote in the wikipedia article.
Quit abusing the news forum.
Dick had a horrible,long battle with alcohol, which he finally won. Making it to 97, considering, is pretty dang good in my book.
I was in New Rochelle just yesterday.
I saw that episode recently... the biker ‘gang’ he was hanging was treated very fairly for the time. At the snack bar, they all rode up on brand new ‘62 (’63?) Harley Sportsters.
So much for the Honda generation!
My mother turned 93 today !
Looks like he’s going to outlive Mary Tyler Moore by six years.
In another sense, since Mary Tyler Moore only lived to be 80, he’s outliving her by quite a few more years.
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