Rise to Fame
His Broadway breakthrough won him a Tony. Not a nomination, the full award, for Bye Bye Birdie in 1961, which is when Carl Reiner decided he was the only one who could play Rob Petrie. He beat out Johnny Carson for the part. CBS nearly cancelled the show after Season 1 when it lost to The Perry Como Show, but summer reruns saved it. Three Emmys followed, and Rob Petrie became the template for every lovable TV everyman that came after.
In the Spotlight
He turned 100 in December 2025. In 2024, Coldplay had Spike Jonze film a birthday video at his Malibu home where Van Dyke dances barefoot, sings with Chris Martin, and still does physical comedy. He won a Daytime Emmy at 98 for a guest spot on Days of Our Lives, reportedly the oldest person ever to win the award. He has a Tony, a Grammy, and six Emmys. The Oscar would complete his EGOT. His response to that: "Posthumously, possibly."
Side Notes
He never had a single dance lesson. Didn't start until his thirties, which makes his Mary Poppins work harder to explain and his notorious Cockney accent easier to forgive. A 2003 Empire poll ranked that accent the second-worst in film history. Separately: he grew up thinking his birthday was in March. His mother waited until he was nearly 18 to tell him the real date, because the December birthday proved he was conceived out of wedlock. He married Arlene Silver in 2012. He was 86. She was 40.