Dick Van Dyke, 99, reveals the heartbreaking ‘curse' of living to almost 100

New York Post

26-05-2025

Dick Van Dyke has experienced heartache in aging.
The 99-year-old Hollywood legend spoke about how he's lost special people in his life during a recent Q&A where he reflected on Ed Asner's death in 2021 before they could make a remake of 'The Odd Couple.'
'That would've been such fun, and we lost it,' said Van Dyke, per People. 'I've lost a lot of friends.'
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8 Dick Van Dyke hosts the second 'Vandy Camp' to aid fire relief in Malibu on April 20.
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8 Dick Van Dyke steps out in Malibu in April 2025.
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8 Dick Van Dyke in 1960.
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'He's outlived everybody,' Van Dyke's wife, Arlene Silver, added at the event in Malibu, Calif.
'That's the curse of living to almost 100,' she shared.
8 Arlene Silver and Dick Van Dyke at the CBS Original Special 'Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic' in 2023.
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But Silver, 53, also noted that Van Dyke is 'still so positive' despite the deaths of so many of his friends and former co-stars.
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When asked how he maintains a positive outlook on life, Van Dyke replied, 'Well, life's been good to me. I can't complain.'
The 'Mary Poppins' star has been married to Silver since 2012.
8 Arlene Silver and Dick Van Dyke at the AMD British Academy Britannia Awards in 2017.
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Van Dyke revealed last month how the couple make their marriage work despite their 46-year age gap.
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'We get along so well,' he told People, as Silver added, 'We just care about each other so much.'
'Everybody said it wouldn't work,' Van Dyke recalled.
8 Dick Van Dyke on his sitcom in 1961.
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Along with a happy marriage, Van Dyke has kept up a healthy lifestyle that he's said involves going to the gym multiple times a week.
'Somebody said, 'To what do you attribute your age and physical condition?' I've always exercised three days a week,' he shared in January on Ted Danson's podcast, 'Where Everybody Knows Your Name.'
8 Dick Van Dyke attends the 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors in 2021.
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'We go to the gym still, and I think that's why I'm not stove up like my equals,' Van Dyke said.
Danson, 77, told Van Dyke: 'I would go to the same gym you did, and if I got there early enough, I would see you literally work out on some weight machine. And then, almost like you were doing circuit training, you would not walk to the next machine, you'd dance. You literally danced to the next machine.'
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8 Dick Van Dyke at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2013.
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While his health is fine, Van Dyke faced a scary incident earlier this year when his home was threatened by the deadly Palisades Fire.
He and Silver did not evacuate their $8 million house despite the blaze destroying other celebrity mansions in Malibu and adjacent areas.
When the fires hit the couple's neighborhood, Van Dyke tried to crawl to the car to escape. Luckily, his neighbors came to his aid at the time.