Dick Van Dyke’s Wife Had Never Seen Him In ‘Mary Poppins’ When They First Met

Dick Van Dyke graced a recent episode of Ted Danson’s Where Every­body Knows Your Name pod­cast, where he revealed that his wife missed out on his clas­sics grow­ing up. The 99-year-old is mar­ried to Arlene Sil­ver, who had yet to see Mary Pop­pins when they first met.

Arlene was sure to point out dur­ing their first encounter that she had nev­er even seen Van Dyke on TV, mak­ing him think she had no idea who he was. The 53-year-old clar­i­fied that her hus­band was quite famous at the time, but she just nev­er watched him.

Related:

1. Dick Van Dyke Prais­es Julie Andrews For Being “So Patient” With Him Film­ing ‘Mary Pop­pins’
2. Dick Van Dyke Looks Exact­ly The Same In New ‘Mary Pop­pins’ Movie – 5 Decades After The Orig­i­nal

How did Dick Van Dyke meet his wife?

Van Dyke and Arlene’s first encounter was back­stage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards event in 2006. It was over four decades since Van Dyke played chim­ney sweep Bert along­side the lead Julie Andrews. He earned a Gold­en Globe nom­i­na­tion for Best Actor in a Motion Pic­ture Musi­cal or Com­e­dy for his per­for­mance but lost to Rex Har­ri­son of My Fair Lady.

Van Dyke did not mind Arlene not know­ing him — if any­thing, he pre­ferred it. He recalled feel­ing like an ordi­nary guy because she was not impressed. For him, it was love at first sight, while it took Arlene a while to come to terms with their 46-year age gap.

Dick Van Dyke’s career so far 

Van Dyke’s Hol­ly­wood career has spanned near­ly sev­en decades, with tri­als and tri­umphs along the way. The renowned actor has received mul­ti­ple well-deserved acco­lades, includ­ing his own star on the Hol­ly­wood Walk of Fame and Dis­ney Leg­end sta­tus, amongst oth­ers.

At 99, Van Dyke, who is the old­est per­son to be nom­i­nat­ed for and win a Day­time Emmy Award, still has career goals and is not retir­ing yet. While receiv­ing his award, he admit­ted that he could not believe he was still alive and so agile; there­fore, he was will­ing to do more work. He also acknowl­edged Arlene, who pro­duced the Dick Van Dyke spe­cial that earned him the recog­ni­tion.