A supercalifragilist! Dick Van Dyke proves that a spoon full of sugar really helps cure medicine — no matter how old you are!
Bye Bye Birdie graduates enjoyed lunch with wife Arlene Silver on Friday, May 20, in Malibu, California, after working out at the gym. In the photos obtained by Page Six, you can see the legendary actor in black sweatpants and a hoodie with the inscription “a spoonful of sugar” — a reference to his cult 1964 film “Mary Poppins”, in which he portrayed the local chimney sweep Mr. Dawes.
The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star and the 50-year-old New York native, who married in February 2011, were initially concerned about how the public would react to their 46-year age difference.
“I thought there would be a fuss about a gold digger marrying an old man,” Van Dyke admitted in an interview with Closer Weekly in March. “But no one has ever taken such a position.”
The Missouri native, who began his career on Broadway more than half a century ago, attributes his vitality to like-minded people and Silver’s energy.
“We have the same attitude,” said the Emmy Award winner. “She can go with the flow. She loves to sing and dance, which we do almost every day. She’s just lovely.”
Silver, for her part, echoed the opinion of actor Matlock. “He is the most perfect person,” she said then. “I have never met anyone so happy, so sincere, so amazing. He’s just like a happy pill.”
The couple met in 2007 at the Screen Actors Guild Award ceremony, where the star of “Diagnosis of Murder” presented the award for lifetime achievement to the partner in the film “Mary Poppins” Julie Andrews, and the makeup artist was instructed to powder his nose.
“He said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick,’ and the first thing I asked him was, ‘Haven’t you been to Mary Poppins?'” Silver recalls of meeting her husband. “We hit it off as friends right away, so it didn’t feel like he was much older than me.”
In November 2015, in an interview with CNN, the performer shared how he maintains his youthful spirit. “Don’t do anything that doesn’t bring pleasure,” he advised. “Maybe I’ve reached a point in my life where I don’t have to do anything that doesn’t bring pleasure.”
He went on to joke about his age: “It’s such a surprise. I remember when I was 80, I said it was acceptable, it was normal, I didn’t know it would be a very slippery slope after that.”
At the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Tony Award winner in December 2015, he attended a flash mob at The Grove in Beverly Hills, California.
Performers dressed as chimney sweeps, like Van Dyke’s character Bert from the Disney classics, performed their signature songs, including “Step in Time”, “Chim Chim Cher-i”, “Merry Holiday” and “Supercalifragilistic Expialidocus”.
At the end, he joined the band and performed “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” by Poppins. Then the crowd sang a song in honor of the actor’s birthday.
At the time, Van Dyke posted a video from the event on social media, tweeting: “I’m very grateful that at 90 I can still go out and play.”
