The Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke is set to celebrate his 100th birthday in two months. Indeed, he will be turning 100 on December 13.
During a public appearance on Sunday, Van Dyke addressed this milestone birthday in a way that has shocked his fans. The former Mary Poppins star showed that his iconic sense of humor is very much intact by making a joke about his 100th birthday that was nothing short of dark.
Van Dyke’s Dark Birthday Joke
On October 5, Van Dyke and his wife Arlene Silver, 54, took part in the Vandy High Tea event at the Vandy Manor in Malibu, California. The event was held to raise money for The Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts and the Dick Van Dyke Museum, which is currently in development.
During the event, Van Dyke was asked about his upcoming birthday. His response left those gathered there completely speechless.
“That’s right. I’m not officially a hundred until December,” Van Dyke said. “Two months. Two months.”
“It’d be funny if I didn’t make it,” he added.
What?!
We can certainly see the humor in a dark joke every now and then. However, we also would not find that the least bit funny at all, Mr. Van Dyke!
Van Dyke Gets Serious
Later in the event, Van Dyke got serious as he reflected on what this major birthday actually means to him.
“I brag sometimes about how I made it to a hundred and the truth is, if I had known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself,” he confessed. “And it is frustrating because I don’t know what I did right. Other than her [Arlene], I didn’t do anything right.”
Van Dyke and Silver have been married since 2012. They had met at the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Silver was working as a makeup artist.
Last month, Van Dyke opened up about the early days of their relationship at Silver’s 54th birthday party. Instagram
“I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman in my life than this one,” Van Dyke gushed in a video posted to Instagram.
When asked about the night the met, Van Dyke recalled, “I never walked up to a strange woman in my life!”
At the time, Van Dyke was “backstage” at the SAG Awards in 2006, and “was just waiting to go on.”
“She walked by and, without even thinking, I jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick,'” he remembered. “And I found out she was a makeup lady, hired her, and now we’ve been married 13 years, and I couldn’t be happier.”
“Happy birthday, sweetheart,” Van Dyke concluded as the video ended.
Van Dyke previously told People Magazine that there was “something about [Silver’s] beautiful eyes” when he first spotted her at this awards show. As for Silver, she was struck by Van Dyke as well.
“I knew him, I just didn’t know how I knew him,” Silver said. “I like that I knew him as a man before I knew him as a performer.”
Van Dyke Is ‘Slowing Down’
At the end of July, insiders spoke out to claim that those close to Van Dyke were fearful that he wouldn’t make it to 100.
“He’s slowing down,” an insider told Radar Online. “One day he’ll be feeling great and wanting to get out and see people, and the next, he’ll feel weak and out of sorts.”
“Some events he simply can’t do,” the source continued. “He used to be a regular fixture at the gym, but he doesn’t go so much anymore. He’s not going out to see friends, and they can only see him at his home when he’s up for it. Everybody desperately hopes he can make it to 100 and beyond, but there are fears he won’t.”
With Van Dyke’s birthday just two months away, we can only hope and pray that he will indeed make it there. In the end, despite what Van Dyke says, it wouldn’t be “funny” at all if he doesn’t live to see 100.
God bless you, Dick Van Dyke!