At 95, Dick Van Dyke is still the consummate showman. And he's desperate to get back onstage.
LOS ANGELES — It's springtime in Los Angeles — the second spring of the covid-19 pandemic — and Dick Van Dyke, bearded, vaccinated and finished with his morning workout, admits he's antsy. His last singing gig took place on a Saturday night 15 months ago at the Catalina Jazz Club. He packed the house. They even had to cram in extra tables as Van Dyke, backed by horns, a rhythm section and his Vantastix singers, slid through a set that included Fats Waller, Nat King Cole and the title song from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."
“Oh, God, I knew I liked it, but I didn’t know how much I would miss it,” he says of performing. “I really miss getting up in front of an audience.”
The legendary star of one of television’s most revolutionary shows is 95. He’s slowed down slightly in recent years — nagging arthritis and a gait abnormality known as drop foot force him to think before he skips — but compared with most everyone else, Van Dyke remains a step ahead. At home on this morning, he and his second wife, Arlene, 49, have already moved through sit-ups, stretches and the stationary bike.
Bathed in the Malibu sun, Van Dyke talks about a career that’s stretched from the Truman administration and the sitcom revolution of the 1960s to his reinvention as a mustachioed, homicide-investigating doctor before coming full circle with that shiver-inducing leap onto a desk in the 2018 “Mary Poppins” sequel. And Van Dyke can’t get far without praising his late friend Carl Reiner, the man who hired him in 1961 to put on that crisp suit so he could report to work as television writer Rob Petrie in “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
“I got the best damn comedy writing in the world,” he says. “And then Walt called me about ‘Mary Poppins.’ ”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/dick-van-dyke-kennedy-center-honors/2021/05/13/61c264e0-ac5c-11eb-b476-c3b287e52a01_story.html
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I love him to death and agree it will be a great loss.
He was featured in If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast (2017)
Unfortunately, they focused on his new bride's singing career, which brought back memories of Citizen Kane
Dick van Dyke is 93 and energetic and a perfect subject for this film. Dick van Dyke married Arlene Silver, who is half his age. (Literally, she is 46 years younger than he is) So far so good. We get interviews with the couple and video of the wedding with Dick van Dyke looking very sharp tearing up the dance floor. Unfortunately, the movie seems not to know when to move on. If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast then takes us to the Capitol Records studio (The one on that famous stacked record building in Los Angeles.) Where some very talented musicians do their best to make Dick van Dyke and his new bride sound like talented singers. It is painful and not a good way to end your movie.
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knowing that Dick Van Dyke is still able and willing to perform at 95. 
