Dick Van Dyke has “no idea” how he’s managed to remain healthy this long. But he has his suspicions.
Speaking with the Today show’s Al Roker ahead of his 100th birthday December 13, the legendary Mary Poppins star admitted that he didn’t expect “to get past 80, at the most.”
“The fun thing is, I don’t know what I did, right? I have no idea,” he said. However, he thinks that staying active likely contributed to his longevity.
“I think keeping moving,” Van Dyke added, sharing that he and his wife, Arlene Silver, 54, dance together whenever they can.
“I’ve always loved the old soft shoe. It’s just something about it, the old soft shoe, it flows. And my wife and I do it together,” he said. “She keeps me young because we sing and we dance, and she just keeps me a teenager.”
Dyke has been married to Silver since 2012. The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actor has previously addressed their nearly 50-year age gap, insisting, “I mean, it’s like eerie how well it works. People the same age don’t last.”
The couple first met at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2006, where Silver was working and Van Dyke was appearing during the ceremony. Although Van Dyke was 81 and she was 35 at the time, the two didn’t strike up a romance until after Van Dyke’s longtime partner Michelle Triola Marvin died from lung cancer in 2009.
“I never said hello to a strange girl in my life. I was too scared,” Van Dyke told People in April of their first meeting. “But I was at a show backstage and she walked by, and for some reason, I just jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ There’s something about her and got me, and I was right.”
He was previously married to Margie Willett from 1948 to 1984.
In preparation for his 100th birthday, the Emmy-winning actor released his latest book, 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life. Published Tuesday, the book is a collection of personal stories, reflections and advice on how he’s maintained a zest for life.
“I don’t care how long the memory of me, Dick Van Dyke, lasts in the world after I’m gone,” he writes in one passage, per Today.com. “I care about the survival of what I’ve shared with the world, humor, compassion, a zest for living, a love of music.
“For as long as children are proudly belting out their new word, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, or singing and skipping along to ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee,’ the most important part of me will always be alive.”
