Dick Van Dyke - biography

“Probably one of the happiest moments, outside the birth of all of my kids, was the first time we won an Emmy, that the show won an Emmy.  That was a big night.”

“I learned everything that I know about comedy and about show business and a lot about life from Carl.”

“I think it’s being thrown at the wolves, we call it in our business.”

“I think the saddest moment in my life just happened two months ago.  My old nightclub partner passed away, Phil Erickson down in Atlanta.  He - I owe him everything.  He put me in the business and taught me about everything I know.”

“I was always in show business but in many ways was not really of show business.  I didn’t move in show business circles, particularly, still don’t do it.”

“No, I did night clubs right here in Los Angeles.  My partner, Phil Erickson, put me in the business, a guy from my home town, a dear friend who we just lost a couple of months ago.”

“I don’t think we’ve got much of a chance to tell you the truth.  But our main problem is our audience skews a little older than most shows, and I don’t think our people can stay up that late.  I certainly can’t.”

“I cannot tell you what it means when children recognize.  This is about the third generation for me.  And when kids that small recognize me, it really pleases me, very gratifying.”

“I don’t have any children, I have four middle-aged people.”

“I have four children and I have seven grandkids.”

“Today, if you’re not an alcoholic, you’re nobody.”

“So at 16 I got a job at the local radio station.  And I was working after school and weekends.  I did the news; I did everything.  I did - played records.”

“I never made a good movie.”

“I turned down some movies that were quite good.  mainly on the basis of taste.”

“Stan said he used to keep Hardy late, make him miss his golf game, and really get him mad.”

“Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American, and like Twain, we’ll likely not see another like him.”

“No, no, it was the relationships.  That was that group.  People believed that Rob and Laura were really married in real life.  You know, a lot of people believed that.”

“So as my kids will tell you, they had a pretty normal life.”

“Oh, well, my first love is comedy or singing and dancing.”

“But I wish they would make a musical of some kind.  I miss musicals so much.  You don’t see them anymore.”

“My kids are so much better parent than I was.”

“You know, I’m almost out of the habit of watching episodic television now.”

“Oh, I had an idea for a pilot of my own at the time, and then Carl sent me about eight scripts and simply I threw my idea out the window because the writing was just so good.”

“Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.”

“A lot of violence, a lot of gore in it, and I just didn’t want to do that kind of thing.”

“But once we got on the air, everybody except Morey Amsterdam pretty much stuck to the script.”

“I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state.”

“I loved to fall down.”

“I think most people will tell you that.  They can go along and, while they’re denying that they are addicted, say it’s stress this, it’s this, it’s that.  But I - it’s - I think - I really believe there is a gene.  Some people become addicted and others don’t.”

“I wanted to be a radio announcer.”

“I’ve retired so many times now it’s getting to be a habit.”

“My son Barry, of course, has been on from the beginning.  And his son Shane is playing now a med student regularly on the show.  And at one point or another, I’ve had all four of his kids on the show.”

“So I think we’re kind of an alternate choice for people who have had it with sex and violence.”

“We had all week to rehearse.  An audience would come in at the end of the week and we’d our little show.  Most of the ad- libbing happened during the week on the show.”

Dick Van Dyke has appeared in the following films:
Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
What a Way to Go! (1964)
Mary Poppins (1964)
The Art of Love (1965)
Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966)
Divorce American Style (1967)
Fitzwilly (1967)
Never a Dull Moment (1968)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Some Kind of a Nut (1969)
The Comic (1969)
Cold Turkey (1971)
Tubby the Tuba (1975)
The Runner Stumbles (1979)
Dick Tracy (1990)
Curious George (2006)
Night at the Museum (2006)
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)