Dick Van Dyke ate bananas to get into the air force
Rejected again and again for being too light, a teenage Dick Van Dyke finally passed his wartime weigh-in after stuffing himself with bananas and water. Pilot training soon gave way to entertaining troops, which set him on a path to Broadway, Mary Poppins and a Tony, a Grammy and six Emmys.
The son of a stenographer and a salesman, he arrived in West Plains, Missouri, on December 13, 1925, and grew up in Danville, Illinois. His younger brother Jerry also became an actor. At Danville High School he sang in the a cappella choir and acted alongside Bobby Short and Donald O'Connor, which persuaded him to perform for a living, though he had weighed up the ministry. He left in his senior year to train as a pilot in the United States Army Air Forces, then moved to Special Services, building sets, entertaining personnel at Majors Army Airfield in Texas and announcing on radio. Discharged in 1946, he only collected his high school diploma in 2004.
Back home he spun records on WDAN in Danville. In 1947 the mime Phil Erickson talked him into a double act, Eric and Van, the Merry Mutes, who toured West Coast nightclubs miming to 78 rpm discs. In Atlanta they got their own weekday show on WSB-TV from April 26, 1954, and Van Dyke also worked as a morning DJ and, from 1953, hosted a children's programme.
Broadway came next. After a 1959 revue, he originated Albert F. Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie in 1960 and won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. From 1961 to 1966 he played Rob Petrie on CBS in The Dick Van Dyke Show, winning three lead-actor Emmys, and later headlined Diagnosis: Murder.
On film, his cockney Bert in Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), a chimney sweep, pavement artist and kite seller rolled into one, earned a Golden Globe nomination, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang followed in 1968. Decades later he turned up in Night at the Museum and Mary Poppins Returns. Honours include the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, Disney Legend status in 1998 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2020.
Source: Dick Van Dyke
