Dick Van Dyke’s 10 finest items of life recommendation as he celebrates a hundredth birthday

Actor and comedy legend Dick Van Dyke celebrates his 100th birthday today and ahead of the major milestone, he shared some key pieces of wisdom that helped him become a centenarian.

The actor, born on December 13, 1925, shot to stardom on Broadway and in movies that fast became childhood favorites like Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He also starred in classic sitcoms such as the The Dick Van Dyke Show and the Mary Tyler Moore Show, quickly becoming a household name.

As Van Dyke drew closer to his one hundredth year he released his memoir ‘100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life’ last month.

The book included anecdotes, memories, and lessons from his life of Hollywood stardom peppered with wise words and advice to live by. 

While all 100 are equally useful and heartwarming, and shine a light on his vast experiences, here the Daily Mail looks at ten of the pieces of advice to live by for a long and happy life. 

1. Don’t Act Your Age

One of Van Dyke’s best known roles was as the beloved chimney sweep Bert in Mary Poppins in 1965. 

A lesser known role of his was in the same film. At just 38-years-old, Van Dyke took on the persona of the evil, decrepit elderly banker by the name of Mr Dawes Sr.

Van Dyke was thrilled to take on a character so unlike himself in age and in attitude. 

‘The superficial stuff, the physical decay, is about the only thing I share with the old guys I played way back when,’ he wrote in his memoir. ‘Thank God, on the inside I am as different from them as I could get.’ 

He encouraged those who are growing cranky and bitter regardless of age to do some self reflection.

‘No one is a grumpy old man at heart,’ he wrote. ‘No one is genetically miserable. No matter our current circumstances, we all have the capacity for a joyful and purposeful life.’

2. Make Christmas with what you’ve got

In the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Van Dyke played charming widower Caractacus Potts, who was a quirky inventor. 

But he found the film set to be far more challenging than the magical Mary Poppins thanks to long hours, terrible weather, and disagreements with the director. 

Thanks to his wife’s health struggles, only his youngest son Barry was with him as filming bled over into the holidays.

In his book he detailed how they rented a house with no decorations, ornaments, lights, or tinsel. They chopped down a scraggly Christmas tree from the forest behind the house. 

‘Despite the trying circumstances, we were all determined to make our holiday with what we had – which is why it felt so special,’ he wrote. 

3. Tell Your Hardest Stories

While Van Dyke was filming for his Emmy-nominated role in the 1974 TV movie The Morning After, he found himself confronting personal demons. 

The movie was about a PR man whose alcoholism ruined his life. As Van Dyke studied for the role, he could not stave off memories of his own alcoholism. 

In his book, he detailed battling addiction for many years as the pressure of Hollywood increased. 

Van Dyke attended group therapy, treatment, and was even hospitalized to try and beat his addiction in the late 1960s.

In light of the film, he decided to share his taboo addiction with a trusted reporter and then the public. 

‘As expected, when Mr Goody Two-shoes admitted his addiction to the world, the public was shocked,’ he wrote. But soon, he got messages from friends, family, and fans who had been affected by alcoholism.

‘When we tell our stories, we’re in the driver’s seat,’ he wrote. ‘And when we share those stories, even just among our friends and family, we are literally helping one another to survive.’

4. You will not be alone

Van Dyke’s eldest daughter Stacy died in 2017, in a death that was too painful for him to relay in his memoir. 

He explained that she held a ‘supremely special place’ in his heart.

‘For all the sadness and loss, the feeling Stacy brings me in my dreams is the exact opposite,’ he wrote. 

‘She’s there. Right with me. Soothing me somehow, in a way that feels like magic… We have found each other again, and we are together.’

His first granddaughter also tragically passed away in 1987 when she took four aspirin for a fever and triggered a rare, fatal disease called Reye’s syndrome.

‘Wherever their spirits went, I believe they are safe and they aren’t alone,’ he wrote. ‘And hopefully, when my time comes, they’ll let me in there with them too.’

5. Stay on the phone

Van Dyke’s friend, Hollywood legend Cary Grant, called him out of the blue in the early 1960s to discuss his experiences with LSD. 

The two had met when Grant visited his dressing room after a show of Bye Bye Birdie in 1960. Van Dyke starred in the original Broadway cast and won a Tony Award for his role.

In the hour-long call Grant explained the enlightenment he had achieved with the use of guided psychedelics.

Between ‘metaphysical’ ramblings, Van Dyke noticed something deeper in Grant’s tone. 

‘What struck me wasn’t so much his words, but what was underneath them,’ Van Dyke wrote. 

‘There was a sadness in his voice, and urgency, so unlike the charming, clever fellow I thought I’d known. I sensed he was in bad shape. So, I just kept listening.’

He wasn’t sure why his old friend began calling him or why the calls stopped, but he felt he had a duty to listen. 

‘I didn’t help him fix any problems, he wrote. ‘But I also didn’t hang up on him mid-ramble. I was a safe ear. Not the most glamorous part one can play in another person’s life, but an important one.’ 

6. Write it down

One of Van Dyke’s resounding claims to fame was the Dick Van Dyke Show. The classic sitcom aired from 1961 to 1966 and won a slew of Emmy awards.

Van Dyke recalled one crew member that made a lasting impact: Marge Mullen, the script advisor.

Mullen had an incredible habit of writing everything down. Whether it be offshoot ideas from the producers or jokes from the cast members, she made a note of each one using pen and paper. 

Mullen turned it into an SOS (Some Other Show) book to keep ideas that didn’t make the cut.

The inspired record acted as a lifeline when they could not quite conjure up a new idea. To this day Van Dyke wished he had kept an SOS book of his own.

‘If each one of us kept an SOS, a record of all the incredible, transformative things that are possible for us to do, we’d be one step closer to actually doing them,’ Van Dyke wrote. 

7. Live with regrets

Van Dyke and his first wife, Margie Willet, met as teenagers in Illinois. They got married in 1948 before the actor shot to stardom and were together for 36 years.

The couple had four children: Christian, Barry, Stacy, and Carrie Beth.

In his book, Van Dyke remembered working hard to give his kids a life of ‘adventure and joy’ and being the opposite of his own father.

Despite his many fatherhood triumphs, Van Dyke still regrets spending so much time working away from his kids and was worried he was not present enough. 

Now he has seven grandchildren and wrote that his regret may have served them well.

‘My children have been much better parents than I was,’ he said. ‘They are all very present. It softens my feeling of regret to know that. It makes me proud.’

8. Believe in fate

Van Dyke met his second wife Arlene Silver, 54, in 2007 while she was doing makeup backstage at the SAG awards. He was 81 and she was 38. 

Both chalked their meeting and subsequent relationship up to fate. 

Van Dyke asked Silver for her card recalled some sort of ‘unexplainable force’ propelling him to her. 

‘Stay tuned: there’s more to come in the story of our friendship and eventual romance,’ he wrote. 

‘But what’s important about this particular moment – our first meeting – is that, for both of us, it felt like destiny.’

After years of friendship and a push from ‘fate,’ the two wed in 2012 at an intimate ceremony and have been together ever since. 

9. Find the new you inside the old you

Van Dyke credited magic as his gateway to a career in comedy. He grew up during the Great Depression in Illinois with his brother Jerry Van Dyke. 

He saw his first magic show when he was little and quickly began to experiment with slight of hand. 

For many Christmases he received brand new magic sets and even performed his clever trickery at the local Kiwanis club. 

When he was a teenager he performed at his school talent show which was met with disaster when the eggs used for his trick rolled off of the table and broke. 

‘In failing at magic, I found the role of a lifetime,’ he explained in his book. 

As the crowd laughed at his failure, Van Dyke became a new version of himself.

‘On instinct, I let this new persona spread its wings. Others might have skulked into the wings, humiliated. 

‘Instead, I took a deep bow, the walked triumphantly off the stage, as if nothing had gone wrong at all.’ 

10. Remain anonymous

While on set for his show TV show Diagnosis: Murder, which Van Dyke starred in with his son Barry, the duo sat outside the set as the crew loaded lights and equipment. 

The two shared the screen on the drama from 1993 to 2001.

People would occasionally drive by the set and honk or wave at him. 

He explained that one day a man hollered his name, asking if he was indeed the megastar. When the charming actor confirmed his identity, the man replied ‘f*** you!’

‘We sat there stunned for a second and then cracked up. We never laughed so hard. I guess not everybody’s a fan,’ he wrote.

Alongside his sage words of wisdom, Van Dyke credited his long life to joy, activity, exercising regularly, and giving up smoking and alcohol. 

Amid the celebrations ahead of his birthday he told Good Morning America that 100 years is still not long enough.

‘You want to live more,’ he said. ‘Which I plan to!’