Still Laughing: Dick Van Dyke Dances His Way to 100

At an age when most people have long since slowed down, Dick Van Dyke is still shuffling, singing — and smiling. As he turned 100 in December 2025, the legendary entertainer released a joyful and reflective book titled 100 Rules for Living to 100.

He jokes up front that there aren’t really 100 rules in the book. But readers will still find more than 100 golden nuggets of humor, honesty, and heart as he looks back on his life, career, and secret to staying young at heart — even at 99.

Born in 1925 in West Plains, Missouri, the son of a salesman, Van Dyke got his start in show business in 1947 as a mime in a comedy duo. From there, his career took off. He made his Broadway debut in The Girls Against the Boys in 1959, and just two years later, he became a household name on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which debuted in 1961. Three years after that, he danced across the rooftops of London as chimney sweep Bert in Disney’s Mary Poppins — a role that would define joy and whimsy for generations.

Now, with over 75 years in show business, Van Dyke has more than earned the right to slow down. And yet, he doesn’t.

“My sight is bad. My hearing is bad. I stoop, I shuffle, I teeter,” he admits in his book, never afraid to poke fun at his age. He also writes candidly about the sorrows of aging — the loneliness that comes with losing close friends and family, the ache of time passing, the struggles of staying upright in body and spirit.

But Van Dyke makes one thing clear: he refuses to let those hardships define him.

“Instead, for the vast majority of my years, I have been in what I can only describe as a full-on bear hug with the experience of living…doing life — not like a job, but rather like a giant playground,” he writes.

It’s that infectious love of life that keeps him going — along with a steady dose of music, movement, and laughter. One of his greatest joys now? Dancing in the kitchen with his wife, Arlene, who is 46 years his junior and full of the same youthful energy that Van Dyke himself radiates.

In the book, he credits her with helping him stay light on his feet — sometimes literally. “She keeps me laughing and moving,” he writes. Their daily routines include a bit of soft-shoe, some good music, and a shared commitment to joy.

Van Dyke says he’s made it to 100 by staying stubborn — not in a cranky way, but in a way that refuses to give up on happiness.

“I’ve made it to one hundred, in no small part, because I have stubbornly refused to give in to the bad stuff in life.”

As he reached his milestone birthday, Van Dyke continues to inspire with his enduring optimism and his ability to laugh at life’s changes — including his own.

He doesn’t pretend that aging is easy, but he shows that it doesn’t have to be miserable. Instead of giving in, he dances through it, one joyful step at a time.