If you had to define the concept of comedy with the career of a single person, Dick Van
Dyke would be that person. But the actor has faced struggles. From relationship woes to
addiction battles, here are some tragic details about the legend.
Is there anyone on the planet who's more fun and infectiously happy than Dick Van Dyke?
Though a quick peek at his IMDb page reveals that his most long-running role is, oddly
enough, the crime-solving Dr. Mark Sloan in the comparatively serious "Diagnosis: Murder,"
the highlights of his excessive filmography almost invariably feature him in roles in
which his assured, slightly goofy happiness and considerable knack for physical comedy
are at the forefront.
Due to his reputation as an affable sort of comedic genius, it's very easy to assume that
Van Dyke is a huge extrovert who just can't help but flash that famous grin every time
he sees a fellow human being. This could not be further from the truth. In a 2016 interview
for Oprah's "Where Are They Now?", Van Dyke revealed that he has struggled with extreme
shyness, to the point that he found it difficult to approach others.
"I was very shy, very sh — with strangers — I just couldn't talk to people."
He soon found a way to treat this debilitating bashfulness, though the cure would eventually
prove far worse than the ailment. Alcohol helped Van Dyke to loosen up, but as we'll
soon see, it created another problem altogether.
During a 2016 appearance in "Oprah: Where Are They Now?", Dick Van Dyke revealed that
his attempts to minimize his shyness with alcohol ultimately led to a lengthy struggle
with addiction that took him years to conquer. In fact, he confirmed to the Bullseye with
Jesse Thorn podcast that he didn't quit drinking until middle age and opened up about his situation
before that happened.
"I drank at home. But instead of having a martini, I would have three or four martinis.
... I had no idea that I had addiction in my personality."
Van Dyke eventually managed to stop drinking, and his decision to open up about his personal
substance use issues has done plenty of good. In fact, he said that many people have found
strength from his confession, and he still gets letters from fans telling him that his
own openness helped them come to grips with their drinking problems.
Dick Van Dyke struggled with alcohol addiction for a long time, and in a 2013 interview with
The Telegraph, he said that it took a toll on his mental health. He reportedly became
very depressed and even considered self-harm to the point that he was, quote, "suicidal."
As strange as it is to imagine Van Dyke like this, the National Institute of Mental Health
reminds us that depression is a common mental health issue that can affect all kinds of
people. Van Dyke was ultimately able to resolve his alcohol-induced bad situation when he
grew weary of alcohol itself. He eventually even developed a physical distaste for drinking,
which helped him to quit for good.
However, he also noted it wasn't a solo effort, and that at various points of his life he's
sought help from sources like rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous.
In a 2010 interview with Craig Ferguson, Dick Van Dyke shared a story of a real-life close
call that would seem too much to believe if it came from anyone else — that he was once
stranded at sea and got saved by a group of porpoises. It all started, he said, when he
fell asleep atop a surfboard and jolted awake to discover that he was in great peril after
the tide had carried him out in the sea. With no land in sight, he started to paddle in,
then saw fins all around him and realized that porpoises were pushing his surfboard
all the way to land.
Is this story an exaggeration, or was it truly just Dick Van Dyke's incredible luck? We may
never know.
There are many sitcoms that are named after their star, but "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was
particularly clear about its main attraction. By Van Dyke's own admission, though, "The
Dick Van Dyke Show" wasn't originally intended to be "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Show creator
Carl Reiner — who appears in the finished product as Van Dyke's TV star boss, Alan Brady
— originally intended to be the main star, but his take on the character didn't end up
working at all. It was only after Reiner realized his show wasn't working that he offered the
part to Van Dyke.
After these hurdles had been cleared, Van Dyke basically ditched everything to take
a shot at the show. As he explained on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, he even threw his own pilot
script away so he could work with Reiner after reading the first scripts for the series.
Just a few years after Van Dyke opened up about being saved by porpoises, he had another,
far less poetic brush with death. In August 2013, the entertainment legend's official
Twitter account posted an image of an utterly destroyed Jaguar sports car, accompanied with
the text, "Used Jag for sale REAL CHEAP!!"
This was not just a strange little social media joke. According to The Guardian, the
then-87-year-old Van Dyke had indeed been driving on Route 101 in California, when suddenly,
his sports car caught fire. The actor managed to pull over safely but had to be rescued
from the smoking vehicle by passersby.
Thankfully, Van Dyke emerged from the burning vehicle with no injuries. As his tweet about
the situation attests, his comedic timing was also as impeccable as ever.
Even at an age in which most people would be content to lounge in a rocking chair and
watch daytime soaps, Dick Van Dyke has managed to stay active. According to The Chicago Tribune,
he was still happily hitting the gym on a daily basis at 89, and he's written a book
that discusses advanced-age fitness. However, he's very familiar with unhealthy habits,
such as cigarettes. The comedian smoked for quite a long time, and as The Washington Post
notes, it was far from a casual vice. In fact, he smoked up to three packs a day and fully
admits that he was addicted to nicotine.
Van Dyke has called cigarettes, quote, "the worst of all addictions." It was so difficult
for him to quit smoking that he ultimately had to be literally scared away from the habit.
It wasn't until a doctor finally showed him an X-ray of his own lungs, and pointed out
the scar tissue on them, that he finally gave up for good.
Van Dyke's smoking days are long gone, but it may not be entirely coincidental that his
lungs have given him trouble in his later days. Reportedly, he's had to deal with pneumonia,
and one of his lungs has even collapsed.
Sometimes, people author their own tragedies, and that was the case when Dick Van Dyke had
an affair that ended his marriage with Margie Willett. In 1972, Van Dyke and Willett were
both treated for addiction — he to alcohol, she to prescription drugs. Van Dyke later
told The Guardian that he feels this was a sign of even deeper issues, since he led the
high life of a famous star, and she had little interest in such matters. Unfortunately, he
decided to deal with this by starting an affair with Michelle Triola, who worked for his agent
and was a former actress herself. In his memoirs, Van Dyke said he was, quote, "writhing in
guilt" over the affair, and eventually decided he had to be honest about it.
Said honesty was the final nail in the coffin of their marriage, and Willett and Van Dyke
decided to live apart and eventually divorced in 1984. Still, while their relationship ultimately
ended because of his infidelity, Van Dyke says that Willett's illness and death in 2008
took a heavy toll on him. He later said that, when Willett passed away, he felt he'd lost
a part of himself.
A long-time partner's death is always a tragedy, and Van Dyke's long life has meant that he
unfortunately had to deal with the loss of his love of many years, Michelle Triola, when
she died in 2009 at the age of 76.
As The Guardian notes, Triola and Van Dyke were together for a long time, though Triola's
better-known relationship is arguably her six-year one with actor Lee Marvin. Triola
never married either Marvin or Van Dyke, though she did take Marvin's name for a time. This
ended up making legal history after they separated in 1970, and Marvin stopped his agreed payments
to her. The ensuing, lengthy legal battle established the concept of palimony — "divorce"
payments in cases of unmarried couples who live together but break up.
Triola's death was hard for Van Dyke for more than just the obvious reasons. He'd just lost
his ex-wife to cancer in 2008, and though he had an idea of what the end result of Triola's
own lung cancer diagnosis would be, he was determined to remain confident that there
was a chance she'd survive — at least on the outside. As he explained to The Guardian:
"When she asked if she was going to die, I pretended I didn't know — the hardest acting
I have ever done."
Imagine having a strange neurological disorder that causes you no end of discomfort, and
that no one seems to be able to properly diagnose. Now, imagine having to live with it for a
whopping seven years, and you have an idea of what Dick Van Dyke went through. According
to Entertainment Tonight, the actor's condition consisted of a strange, heartbeat-like sound
inside his head, and none of the numerous treatments and tests he'd gone through managed
to solve the problem. Over the years, it got so bad that it severely affected his ability
to function, due to the sheer fatigue it caused.
In 2013, Van Dyke revealed the situation when he took to Twitter to crowdsource solutions
to his mystery ailment. This openness may have led to a breakthrough, because a few
weeks after his initial tweet, his Twitter account posted that the case of his mysterious
throbbing head was finally solved ... and that the root cause of the problem was actually
his famous smile. Van Dyke later tweeted that his titanium dental implants were actually
what caused the pounding sensation.
Dick Van Dyke has played many great roles, but as The Guardian tells us, one particular
thing has haunted him for decades. His performance as Bert, the multi-talented chimney sweep
in "Mary Poppins," is a masterclass of song, dance, and physical comedy. Unfortunately,
the character is also saddled with what Van Dyke himself has called, quote, "the most
atrocious Cockney accent" in the history of filmmaking
"Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane, you say? All right, come along with me."
To be fair, Van Dyke didn't mangle the dialect on purpose. In fact, when making the film,
he was under the impression that he was doing a pretty decent job with the character's accent,
because no one told him otherwise. After the film came out, however, people have more than
made up for this lack of feedback over the years.
Though Van Dyke doesn't come across as a particularly negative man, years of reflecting on the criticism
make it seem that the whole Cockney accent thing has nevertheless gotten under his skin.
After all, in 2017 he actually used his BAFTA award speech to formally apologize for his
linguistic crimes against Cockney.
We still love you, Bert!
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text
Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI
(6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.