Happy 100th Birthday To Dick Van Dyke Of Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins Fame

A Brief Tribute from Doug Draper, a life-long fan

Posted December 13^th, 2025 on Niagara At Large

Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, who played his wife, on The Dick Van Dyke Show during the early 1960s.

I know there are a lot of issues of interest and concern to our Niagara community that I want and I need to get back to reporting and commenting on, but I can’t help but take a few minutes out on a snowy Saturday in December to say Happy 100^th Birthday to actor/comedian Dick Van Dyke.

Yes, this December 13^th, 2025 is his 100^th birthday and at the risk of dating myself, I am old enough to remember when he first burst on the scene in 1961 on a television sitcom called The Dick Van Dyke show.

I was just a little kid living in my childhood home on the west side of Welland but, again, I was old enough to recall how “modern” that show was compared to most of the other shows on television at the time.

There was  Dick and Mary Tyler Moore, who played his wife on the show,  channeling all of the youthful   energy and charisma  of a young U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie who were then wowing Americans and Canadians alike in the White House.

Dick Van Dyke, celebrating his 100th Birthday in the hospital with an “undisclosed illness.” Get well Dick!

Dick Van Dyke went on to make entertainment history again, starring with Julie Andews in the classic children’s film Mary Poppins, still beloved by generation and generation today, and he  continued his career playing so many other roles on the stage and screen.

Just last year, I say him on a late night talk show when he turned 99 and he got a huge laugh out of the audience saying; “I am old enough to be Joe Biden’s father.”

To watch the now classic intro for The Dick Van Dyke Show (colourized and not the original black & white), click on the screen immediately below –

• Happy Birthday Dick and thanks for all of the  warm memories you have gifted to so many of us, Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

P.S. – I am sorry if there are a few typos or grammatical errors in this but I have to get out to now to shovel the snow.

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