Dick van Dyke Biography

It was playing the lead in 'Bye Bye Birdie' on Broadway, in 1960, that got him noticed, and his performance secured him the same role in the film version in 1963. The same show also secured him 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', where he starred as Rob Petrie in this long running television series, which was a staple programme in the United States during the 1960s.

At the same time that he was appearing in his own television series, he was also building a career in film.

He was given a part in Walt Disney's 'Mary Poppins' in 1964. He played an amiable chimney sweep, with a questionable cockney accent, opposite Julie Andrews' magical nanny.

Another famous musical role was in 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', in 1968, where he played Caractacus Potts, the inventor of a magical car.

In the early 1970s he battled against a alcoholism, an experience that he drew upon for his part in the 1974 film, 'The Morning After', one of his first dramatic roles.

In 1975, he played another atypical role as a murdering photographer in an episode of Columbo. However Van Dyke returned to comedy in 1976 with the sketch comedy show Van Dyke and Company which also starred Andy Kaufman and Super Dave Osborne. Despite being cancelled after only three months, the show won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety Series.

His career seemed essentially over by the late 1980s when he began a career comeback. First, he took a guest starring role on NBC's hit television series 'The Golden Girls' playing Dorothy's beau, who decides to give up being a lawyer to become a circus clown. The role earned him his first Emmy nomination since 1977.

In 1990, Van Dyke, whose usual role had been the amiable hero, took a small but villainous turn as the crooked D.A. Fletcher in Warren Beatty's movie 'Dick Tracy'. The reviews he received for Tracy led him to star in a series of television movies on CBS that became the foundation for his popular television drama, 'Diagnosis: Murder', which ran from 1993 to 2001. He continued to find television work after the show ended, including a dramatically and critically successful performance in 'The Gin Game', produced for television in 2003.

Van Dyke returned to the big screen in the 2006 film 'Curious George' as Mr Bloomsberry. His most recent role is Cecil in the Ben Stiller film 'Night at the Museum', released in December 2006. In January 2007 Van Dyke reprised his role as Dr Jonathan Maxwell in 'Murder 101: College Can Be Murder' for the Hallmark Channel.