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Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actor Dick Van Dyke has shared what he claims is his secret to a long life, weeks before turning 100.
The American star, who is due to reach the milestone age on 13 December, said in a new interview he has successfully avoided anger and hate throughout his life, which is “one of the chief things that kept me going”.
According to Van Dyke, he has “never really able to work up a feeling of hate” and attributes reaching 99 to his “brighter outlook”.
“I’ve always thought that anger is one thing that eats up a person’s insides – and hate,” he told US magazine People.
“There were things I didn’t like, people I don’t like and disapprove of. But I never really was able to do a white heat kind of hate.”
Van Dyke also credited much of his survival to his wife Arlene, who is aged 54.
“Without question, our ongoing romance is the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch,” Van Dyke wrote in a recent health diary for The Times.
“Arlene is half my age, and she makes me feel somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters my age, which is still saying a lot.”
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Dick Van Dyke on his way to collect a Daytime Emmy in Los Angeles in June 2024 (Getty)
In the same article, he said he feels “diminished” both “physically and socially”, and revealed that “every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds”.
Despite nearing a century, Van Dyke remains active, having released a new book, 100 Rules For Living To 100. “Each rule springs from a story in my own life, which I believe has stuck itself in my memory for a good reason – because it had some broader emotional significance for me,” he says of the book.
The actor who also starred in a Coldplay music video last year, expresses a youthful spirit, stating, “I feel really good for 100. Sometimes I have more energy than others – but I never wake up in a bad mood. I feel like I’m about 13.”
Reflecting on his legacy, the entertainer isn’t concerned with personal remembrance, but rather the enduring joy his work brings. “But it’s the music, the music we leave behind,” he mused.
“For as long as children are proudly belting out their new word, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, or singing and skipping along to Chim Chim Cher-ee, the most important part of me will always be alive.”
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Dick Van Dyke is best known for starring in movies like ‘Mary Poppins’ and ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ (Getty Images)
Van Dyke’s illustrious career spans over seven decades, garnering him numerous accolades including four Emmys, a Tony for Bye Bye Birdie, and a Grammy for the Mary Poppins soundtrack. He was inducted into the Television Hall Of Fame in 1995 and holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He summarises his journey as “a wonderfully full and exciting life, that I can’t complain.”