With a new memoir out and days from turning 100, the iconic optimist reveals how he's lived so long and lighthearted.
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On December 13, beloved actor, comedian, and Broadway star Dick Van Dyke will celebrate one of the rarest milestones in show business: his 100th birthday. In true Van Dyke fashion, he’s hitting the century mark with gusto. Just last year, at 98, he made history as the oldest-ever Daytime Emmy winner, proving he refuses to age by anyone else’s script.
Of course, Van Dyke has long toyed with age. He was 38 when he got his big break in Mary Poppins, playing two memorable characters: the affable chimney sweep, Bert, and the elderly banker Mr. Dawes.
These days, he’s turning the joke on himself: this week in a sit-down interview with Al Roker on TODAY, Van Dyke revealed the question he hears the most as he approaches 100: “Why are you still walking around?”
100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life
Still, Van Dyke hasn’t always followed a picture-perfect lifestyle. He’s been candid about past struggles with alcohol, decades of smoking, and health issues like severe arthritis in his 40s. But with the right mindset, Van Dyke shows us it’s never too late to turn your health around. His longevity isn’t the product of perfectionism or extreme habits, but of joy, movement, purpose, and an almost stubborn level of optimism.
Read on to learn his top life lessons that have kept him living to his fullest for all these years.
Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesDick Van Dyke at the 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors
Roxanne McCann/Getty ImagesDick Van Dyke and wife, Arlene Silver
“I’ve often tried to think ‘What did I do to live this long?’ and I can’t figure [it] out,” Van Dyke said in a 2024 interview with Entertainment Tonight. “The only thing is I’ve always exercised. We still go to the gym three days a week and work out. And I believe that’s the secret. Most people at 98 years old don’t really feel like working out and they seize up, you know?”
In his book 100 Rules for Living to 100, Van Dyke says he typically does a circuit training routine, starting with the sit-up machine. “Then I do all the leg machines religiously because my legs are two of my most cherished possessions.” He also trains his upper body, stretches, and enjoys swimming.
Like many of us, Van Dyke doesn’t always feel like working out. But he gets himself out the door with small motivations—or in his word, “carrots” he dangles, like a post-workout smoothie, a well-earned nap, and the promise of limber dancing in the days ahead.
2) He’s always dancing
FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty ImagesDick Van Dyke with Carol Burnett during her Hand and Footprint ceremony in the courtyard of the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California
A key to Van Dyke’s longevity is keeping life playful—and to him, that means dancing. In his book, he writes that play comes naturally to children, but more “important” things seem get in the way as we grow up.
But he encourages embracing a youthful side, saying, “You can tap into play to make practically anything more fun—a strained family visit, a boring car ride, a dreaded chore, an anxious wait at the doctor’s office.” Even at the gym, Van Dyke doesn’t walk from machine to machine, he dances. “As all these little experiences accumulate, your whole approach to living can change,” he writes. “I don’t think about the way I am supposed to act at my age—or at any age.”
And if Van Dyke’s vibrancy doesn’t get on your feet, a 2025 review of research published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living concluded that dancing is a powerful anti-aging tool. Among older adults, dancing improves:
“You can’t stay young forever. You can stay young-minded forever. That’s why I never grew up,” Van Dyke told E! News in a recent interview.
Referencing the older characters he once played in his 2025 book: “Those guys were just so peppery. And in case that’s an old-timey word, let me translate: irritable and sharp-tongued. Get-off-my-lawn kind of guys. The only measly joy they got out of life was through malice. Also, there was an underlying sadness to a lot of the old guys I played. Their best years were behind them.”
He says that the only thing he shares with those characters is that he, too, has physically aged. “On the inside, I am as different from them as I could get. No one is genetically miserable. No matter our current circumstances, we all have the capacity for a joyful life.”
4) He’s stubbornly positive
Myung J. Chun/Getty Images
As he’s aged, Van Dyke’s felt the weight of current events, losing friends, and having to simply slow down. “It’s frustrating to feel diminished in the world, physically and socially,” he shares in his 2025 book.
“However, I’ve made it to 99 in no small part because I have stubbornly refused to give into the bad stuff in life: failures and defeats, personal losses, loneliness and bitterness, the physical and emotional pains of aging. That stuff is real but I have not let it define me. 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.”
Research backs him up: optimism is consistently linked to a longer lifespan. According to 2025 research in the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, people with a positive mindset live an average of 7.5 years longer.
5) He’s passionate about his work
Van Dyke—also known and loved for his TV roles on shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis: Murder—considers passion for his stagecraft as one of his secrets to living a long and happy life. “I just play like I’ve been making believe for 80 years,” he told E! News. “And I can’t call it work. It isn’t. I just love everything I do.”
In fact, he still plays the occasional gig with his a cappella group, the Vantastix—this past March, they hosted a fundraiser for wildfire relief efforts in Malibu, California. “When we sing, my heart just soars. Because I’m still doing what I love,” he says.
6) He still loves to sing
Vince Bucci/Getty Images
Audiences may have fallen in love with Van Dyke for his various musical performances—before he was a star in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he won a 1961 Tony for his role of Albert F. Peterson in the original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie. Turns out, it’s a talent he still nurtures to this day.
“Singing is the best thing you can do for yourself,” he told Al Roker in November 2025. “Usually I’ll wake up with an old tune going through my head.”
Research backs up his passion: according to a 2025 review published in the journal Brain Sciences, singing can make a measurable difference in cognitive health for both individuals with dementia, and those who are considered to be healthy older adults.
In people with dementia, singing can help with episodic memory, mood enhancement, and social connection—all vital factors for minimizing the disease’s impact. Meanwhile, “healthy older adults demonstrate improved verbal flexibility and cognitive resilience,” reported the research team.
7) He empowers the next generation of artists
While Van Dyke is proud of his own remarkable career, he’s equally committed to creating opportunities for up-and-coming performers. In 2024, the Van Dyke Endowment Fund for the Arts pledged a $3 million goal for visual and performing arts funding in Malibu’s public schools.
“What is important about the theater to kids?” prompts Van Dyke in his E! News interview. “They get a certain attitude of confidence being on that stage.”
He’s also invested in a range of philanthropic efforts. For nearly 20 years, Van Dyke has supported a community shelter in Los Angeles called The Midnight Mission. He’s helped raise millions, but his charity goes beyond writing checks—he’s often spotted actively volunteering, spreading his trademark cheer. He also serves as a spokesperson for organizations close to his heart, including the National Reye’s Syndrome Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund.
Research shows that giving back like Van Dyke may actually protect against aging. The social connection, sense of purpose, and stimulation associated with helping others may slow brain aging by up to 20%, according to a 2025 study published in Social Science & Medicine.
8) He’s a romantic
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty ImagesActor Dick Van Dyke and wife Arlene Silver at the 2017 AMD British Academy Britannia Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel
They say a heart that loves is always young—and Van Dyke would certainly agree. Steve Boettcher, the director behind the upcoming December 2025 documentary Dick Van Dyke: 100th Celebration, told People he believes that Van Dyke’s wife, Arlene Silver, has been “a key force in keeping him so vibrant and alive today.”
Van Dyke met Silver in 2006, and, despite their 46-year age gap, got married with full family support. “My oldest child, Christian, was the only one in the family who had doubts, but after we exchanged our vows in 2012, he said, ‘Dad, I get it,'” he told The Guardian. Van Dyke was formerly married to his hometown sweetheart Margie Willett, with whom he had four children: sons Christian and Barry and daughters Stacy and Carrie Beth.
“Without question, our ongoing romance [with Silver] is the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch,” Van Dyke writes in his 2025 book. “Every day she finds a new way to keep me up and moving, bright and hopeful and needed.”
9) He always looks for humor
Earl Theisen Collection/Getty ImagesActor Dick Van Dyke and actress Mary Tyler Moore in rehearsal for The Dick Van Dyke Show, December 1963
In his new book, Van Dyke explains: “As I get older I have found that life is more and more a comedy of errors. So if you can’t laugh at yourself, you’ve got big problems.”
He’s right. UCLA Health points to studies showing that laughter doesn’t just enhance well-being in older adults—it boosts the immune system, improves heart health, decreases stress, and naturally reduces pain.
In his interview with E! News, Van Dyke joked how his fitness routine incidentally helped him outlive his peers: “And I think that’s why I have no friends left. They’re all dead.”
He even uses humor to address the age gap with his wife—a topic that’s garnered some attention over the years. “I was fortunate that I didn’t grow up,” he playfully quips. As he explains to The Guardian, “We don’t feel the age gap. I’m emotionally immature and Arlene is very wise for her age, so we meet in the middle.”
10) His commitment to sober living
“I was an alcoholic for 25 years,” Van Dyke told The Guardian. In a special with Oprah Winfrey, he said he first turned to alcohol to overcome shyness. “I found if I had a drink, it would loosen me up. The barriers went down and I became very social. That’s what got me started,” he told her.
Van Dyke shares that while in therapy, he realized he was following in the footsteps of his father. “He often came home drunk after lengthy road trips and my mother threatened to walk out unless he quit—which he did,” he told The Guardian. That’s when Van Dyke pledged to quit drinking himself and entered a rehab clinic.
11) He always eats dessert
Tasia Wells/Getty Images
In his 2015 book, Keep Moving and Other Tips and Truths About Aging, Van Dyke stated that he’s never been overly strict with his diet, but has followed the same strategy for decades: “Eat light, but also treat yourself to dessert at the end of every day.”
Still, Van Dyke emphasizes that good habits matter. He avoids fast and processed foods, limits meat, and watches his sugar intake. Two mainstays remain: “I have blueberries every morning. When I was a kid I said, ‘When I grow up I want to eat candy every night.’ I do eat ice cream every night.” According to our sibling site, Taste of Home, that ritual includes two scoops of Häagen-Dazs vanilla with a generous topping of chocolate syrup.
Research supports the idea of small indulgences as a part of a balanced, sustainable diet. A 2025 study in Psychology & Behavior found that people who allow themselves small portions of their favorite foods are more likely to maintain a healthy weight, follow a consistent diet, and have fewer cravings.
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