Days before he became the oldest-ever Daytime Emmy winner for his guest role on Peacock’s Days of Our Lives, 98-year-old Dick Van Dyke revealed his bucket list career wish to Variety in an interview published June 20.
Van Dyke appeared on several episodes of the soap opera as an amnesiac grandfather who comes home after a mysterious disappearance and tries to piece together the gaps in his memory. “They called me out of the blue, and I liked the part,” Van Dyke said of accepting the role, while admitting he never thought he’d do a soap opera. “I played a father, and I’m a great-grandpa in real life! We had fun; my wife got to play my attendant. I was in a wheelchair.”
The unexpected career shift has inspired the nonagenarian to take on even more varied roles in his seventh decade of show business. “I’d like to do one more dramatic thing,” Van Dyke revealed.
Late last year, CBS aired its special Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic, which featured archival footage of Van Dyke’s projects. Stars like Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander and Weird Al Yankovich also turned out to put singular spins on some of Van Dyke’s best-known tunes from Mary Poppins and The Dick Van Dyke Show. But there was one thing the star felt was missing from his sizzle reel.
“I said to the guys who produced the special, ‘I did like some dramatic work.’ They said, ‘Nobody wants to see you be serious,’” Van Dyke joked to Variety. “Maybe I can get a little show together showing some of my dramatic work.”
Although he still has a few boxes to check on his list of career accomplishments, Van Dyke is perfectly pleased with his immense legacy. “I left a good example for a young generation. I think I have a positive effect on kids. And I can tell by the mail I get from kids that I’ve had a good effect,” he said. “They want to emulate that behavior. And that, I think, is why what we really accomplish is worthwhile. I’m so happy the impact I had was a positive one, and I’m perfectly satisfied with that.”
