DICK VAN DYKE
49th Annual Accolade to be Presented During the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®
Simulcast Live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 27, 2013
LOS ANGELES (August 21, 2012) – Dick Van Dyke, beloved actor, singer, dancer, writer and comedian, will receive
SAG-AFTRA’s
highest honor – the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement
and humanitarian accomplishment. Van Dyke will be presented the
performers union’s most prestigious accolade, given annually to an
actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” at the
19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which premieres live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT and 5 p.m. PT.
In making today’s announcement, SAG-AFTRA Co-President Ken Howard said,
“Dick is the consummate entertainer -- an enormously talented performer
whose work has crossed nearly every major category of entertainment.
From his career-changing Broadway turn in 'Bye Bye Birdie' and his
deadpan humor in the Emmy® winning 'Dick Van Dyke Show,' to his
unforgettable performance as Bert in 'Mary Poppins,” he sets a high bar
for actors. Stage, big screen, small screen, literally everywhere he
has worked he has inspired millions of fans and has had a tremendously
positive impact on the industry and the world. He is so deserving of
this honor and I congratulate him."
SAG-AFTRA Co-President Roberta Reardon said: "With Dick, it's so much
more than the proverbial 'triple threat.' He started his career as a
radio announcer, game show host and comedian and was a spokesman for
Kodak, among numerous other roles over his nearly 60-year career. His
contributions to the success of the business and to his fellow
performers is legendary as is his work with a number of the leading
ladies of our times, including Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore —
both previous Life Achievement Award recipients. His infectious laugh
has warmed audiences for decades and is an unforgettable facet of his
fabulous personality."
Holder of five Emmys®, a Tony® Award and a Grammy®, Van Dyke at 86
still possesses the zest for life that first propelled him into the
limelight more than a half-century ago with the Broadway and film
versions of “Bye Bye Birdie,” the seminal ‘60s situation comedy “The
Dick Van Dyke Show” and the film classic “Mary Poppins."
He was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, on
December 13, 1925, and raised in Danville, Illinois, hometown as well
to Donald O’Connor, Gene Hackman and Bobby Short. As a youngster he
taught himself music, magic and pantomime. By 16, he was appearing in
school plays, running track, serving as junior class president and
working part time as an announcer on a local radio station. Enlisting
in the Air Force at 18, he soon was performing for the troops and
hosting a radio show called “Flight Time.” After one year of duty he
was back in Danville, giving advertising a try, but it was not a fit.
With another Danville local, Phil Erickson, he hit the road in a
record-pantomime act called “The Merry Mutes,” a perfect showcase for
his physical comedy gifts. While appearing in Los Angeles, he sent for
his high school sweetheart, Marjorie Willet. The two were married on
“Bride and Groom,” a network radio program offering gifts and a
honeymoon to newlyweds.
After a run hosting a daytime talk show in Atlanta and a morning show
in New Orleans, CBS put him under contract. Van Dyke moved to New York
where in 1954 he began hosting “The Morning Show” (which featured up
and coming newscaster Walter Cronkite). Other hosting jobs preceded his
1957 television-acting debut on an episode of “The Phil Silvers Show.”
and his Broadway debut in 1959 with Bert Lahr in the comedy revue “The
Boys Against the Girls.” The following year his career soared when he
was cast by director/choreographer Gower Champion opposite Chita Rivera
in “Bye Bye Birdie.” His performance as rock star Conrad Birdie’s
songwriter/manager Albert Peterson earned Van Dyke a Tony® Award and
brought him to the attention of Sheldon Leonard and Carl Reiner, who
signed him for a pilot opposite newcomer Mary Tyler Moore. The now
eponymous “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” starring Van Dyke and Moore as Rob
and Laura Petrie, premiered in 1961 and ran for five seasons. With a
perfect ensemble cast including Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam, the
wittily written series was a showcase for Van Dyke’s genius for
physical comedy, earning him three lead actor Emmy® Awards.
The tireless Van Dyke spent his series’ hiatus shooting the film
version of “Bye Bye Birdie” in 1963 followed by “What a Way to Go” and
Disney’s 1964 musical classic “Mary Poppins,” It won five Academy
Awards® including one for star Julie Andrews (SAG’s 2006 Life
Achievement Award recipient) and earned Van Dyke a Golden Globe®
nomination and, with Andrews, a Grammy®. A run of films followed
including “Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN,” (1966), “Divorce American Style”
(1967), “Fitzwilly” (1967), the musical “Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang”
(1968), Garson Kanin’s satire on conformity “Some Kind of a Nut” (1969)
and Norman Lear’s anti-smoking “Cold Turkey” (1970). Van Dyke, who had
delivered the eulogies for his comedy idols Stan Laurel and Buster
Keaton, explored the role of a fictional silent movie star in 1969’s
“The Comic,” He would return to the big screen again in Stanley
Kramer’s “The Runner Stumbles” (1978), Warren Beatty’s “Dick Tracy”
(1990) and more recently the Ben Stiller comedy “Night at the Museum”
(2006).
After a year of filming “Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang” in England, Van Dyke
moved with his family to their ranch in Carefree, Arizona where “The
New Dick Van Dyke Show” was produced for CBS for three seasons. In
1974, his stunning portrayal of an alcoholic family man in David
Wolper’s groundbreaking ABC Television movie “The Morning After” earned
Van Dyke an Emmy nomination. A guest-star turn as a homicidal
photographer opposite Peter Falk’s “Columbo” followed.
It was back to song, dance and comedy in NBC’s variety series “Van Dyke
and Company,” earning him a fourth Emmy® (this time shared with his
fellow producers,) followed by a national tour in “The Music Man,”
which brought Van Dyke back to Broadway and a national tour in “Damn
Yankees.” The 1980s brought a run of television movies including the
Showtime production of “The Country Girl” opposite Faye Dunaway,
”Drop-Out Father," opposite Mariette Hartley, “Found Money” opposite
Sid Caesar, “Breakfast with Les and Bess” opposite Cloris Leachman for
PBS’s “American Playhouse” and the miniseries “Strong Medicine.”
In 1982, Van Dyke earned his fifth Emmy for his vocal performance as
the Father in the CBS Library special “Wrong Way Kid.” His voice over
talents were employed most recently in the 2006 animated feature
“Curious George” and the 2010 short “The Caretaker 3D,” a tribute to
the Hollywood Sign.
Van Dyke’s crime solving physician, Dr. Mark Sloan, was introduced in a
1991 episode of “Jake and the Fat Man” and became the central character
in three TV movies before evolving into the CBS series “Diagnosis:
Murder.” It ran from 1993 to 2001, followed by two Dr. Sloan television
movies in 2002. “Diagnosis: Murder” co-starred Van Dyke’s son Barry as
a police detective and during its run provided guest-star opportunities
for Van Dyke’s daughter Stacy, grandchildren Carey, Shane, Wes and
Taryn and brother Jerry Van Dyke. From 2006 to 2008, the father-son
team reunited for a series of four Hallmark Channel “Murder 101”
movies, casting Barry as a private investigator opposite Dick’s
absent-minded but brilliant criminology professor, Dr. Jonathan Maxwell.
In 2003, Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore re-teamed to portray lonely
seniors in D.L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “The Gin Game” on
“PBS Hollywood Presents” and the following year recreated husband and
wife Rob and Laura Petrie for Carl Reiner’s CBS telefilm “The Dick Van
Dyke Show Revisited.” They were notably reunited this past January when
Van Dyke presented Moore with SAG’s 48th Life Achievement Award on the
18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Van Dyke, whose 2011 memoir “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business”
made the New York Times Best Sellers list, admits that his retirement
plans have yet to work out. In 2006 he returned to Broadway receiving
standing ovations in his “Bye Bye Birdie” leading lady’s “Chita Rivera:
The Dancers Life.” In addition to his memoir, Van Dyke is the author
of “Faith, Hope and Hilarity: The Child’s Eye View of Religion” (1970)
and “Those Funny Kids” (1975), a collection of classroom humor.
Music, Van Dyke’s spiritual nourishment, became richer when he teamed
twelve years ago with Eric Bradley, Bryan Chadima and Mike Mendyke to
form The Vantastix. Their first major public appearance was at the
Society of Singers Ella Awards honoring his “Mary Poppins” leading lady
Julie Andrews. They’ve since performed the National Anthem at L.A.
Lakers playoffs, mounted a musical memoir at L.A.’s Geffen Theatre,
appeared at the Hollywood Bowl, Disney Hall and at Ford’s Theatre in
Washington D.C. with the President and First Lady in the front row and
released an album of children’s song: “Put on A Happy Face.”
For nearly twenty years Van Dyke has been tirelessly committed to his
volunteer work at The Midnight Mission, Los Angeles’ century-old
downtown shelter for the troubled and homeless. He helped raise
millions for their new building program and is there without fail every
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and times in between offering comfort
and cheer, often with the Vantastix and members of his own family. He
is passionate about raising funds for music and art programs for public
schools and has performed at countless fundraisers. He became a
spokesperson for the National Reye’s Syndrome Foundation in 1967 after
losing a granddaughter to that disease and in 2010 was named the first
spokesperson for the Cell Therapy Foundation.
Van Dyke has four children from his marriage to the late Marjorie
Willet Van Dyke -- sons Christian and Barry, and daughters Stacey and
Carrie Beth -- and seven grandchildren.
On February 29, 2012, he married make-up artist Arlene Silver (whom he
met at the 2007 SAG Awards) and whose vocal talents now occasionally
blend with those of Dick and The Vantastix. They live in Malibu,
California.
The
19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards presented by
SAG-AFTRA
will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with
Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC. Kathy Connell is the producer. JoBeth
Williams, Daryl Anderson, Scott Bakula, Shelley Fabares, Paul Napier,
and Woody Schultz are producers for SAG-AFTRA. Gloria Fujita O’Brien
and Mick McCullough are supervising producers. Benn Fleishman is
executive in charge of production. Rosalind Jarrett Sepulveda is
executive in charge of publicity. Jon Brockett is awards coordinating
producer. Maggie Barrett Caulfield is the talent producer. For more
information visit
sagawards.org/about, “like” the SAG Awards at
facebook.com/sagawardsofficialpage and follow the SAG Awards at
twitter.com/sagawards.
SAG-AFTRA
represents more than 165,000 represents actors, announcers,
broadcasters journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors,
program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt
performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. SAG-AFTRA
members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and
the world. With national offices in Los Angeles and New York, and local
offices nationwide, SAG-AFTRA members work together to secure the
strongest protections for media artists into the 21st century and
beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA at
sagaftra.org, follow SAG-AFTRA at
twitter.com/sagaftra and ‘like’ SAG-AFTRA at
facebook.com/sagaftra.
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one of cable’s top-rated networks, is television’s destination for
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“Perception,” “Major Crimes,” “Franklin & Bash,” “Leverage,”
Southland and the upcoming “Monday Mornings.” The network also features
dramatic unscripted originals like this summer's “The Great Escape” and
the upcoming “Boston Blue” (working title) and “72 Hours” (working
title). In addition, TNT is the cable home to popular dramas like “The
Mentalist, “Bones,” “Supernatural," “Las Vegas,” “Law & Order” and
“Castle,” which starts this year; primetime specials, such as the
“Screen Actors Guild Awards®;” blockbuster movies; and championship
sports coverage, including NASCAR, the NBA and the NCAA Division I
Men’s Basketball Championship.
TBS
is basic cable's #1 network among young adults in primetime. Available
in 100 million households, TBS features the Emmy®-nominated late-night
series “CONAN,” starring Conan O’Brien; and original primetime comedy
series like “Men at Work,” “Sullivan & Son,” “Cougar Town,” Tyler
Perry's “For Better or Worse,” “Wedding Band,” “King of the Nerds”),
Deon Cole's “Black Box” (working title) and “Who Gets the Last Laugh?”
(working title). TBS also features an outstanding slate of contemporary
comedies, such as “The Big Bang Theory” and “Family Guy,” along with
blockbuster movies and championship sports. In addition, TBS produces
special live comedy events, like the star-studded comedy festival held
each year in Chicago.
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a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news;
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on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
