"All Hollywood stars grow old and die except perhaps one - Dick Van Dyke - who turns 100 today. The real world Peter Pan who used to trip over the ottoman on The Dick Van Dyke Show is still standing. The man who impersonated a wind-up toy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang hasn't wound down just yet. He has outlived mentors, co-stars, romantic partners and several studios."
"Charm is the magic ingredient of every popular entertainer and few have possessed it in such abundance as Van Dyke, the impoverished son of a travelling cookie salesman who dropped out of high school and educated himself at the movies. His job in this life is to make a happier world, his Broadway co-star Chita Rivera once said - and this may explain his stubborn refusal to quit, not while times are tough and he feels that audiences still need cheering up."
"Naturally his workrate has now slowed, but in the past few years he has competed on the TV show The Masked Singer, starred in a Coldplay video and enthusiastically stumped for Bernie Sanders. Van Dyke simply couldn't understand why America's older citizens were resistant to Sanders' democratic socialist domestic policies. He said, I want to urge my generation to get out and vote for him, please."
Dick Van Dyke turns 100 and continues to perform and appear in public. He starred on The Dick Van Dyke Show, played a wind-up toy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and appeared in Mary Poppins, where his mangled cockney accent is now regarded fondly. He was the impoverished son of a travelling cookie salesman, dropped out of high school and educated himself at the movies. He believes his job is to make a happier world and has resisted retirement while audiences need cheering up. Recent activities include The Masked Singer, a Coldplay video and campaigning for Bernie Sanders. He began his career entertaining troops in World War II and worked alongside figures such as Phil Silvers and Walt Disney.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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