Dick Van Dyke: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business

Growing up, Dick Van Dyke was always one of my favorite actors.  In my generation, who didn't dream of having Rob and Laura Petrie as parents?  Not too long ago, Dick Van Dyke appeared as a guest on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me news quiz show to play Not My Job.  He was just as entertaining and charming on the show as Peter Sagal fired off-the-wall questions at him as I remember him being on his classic Dick Van Dyke Show.  Reading his memoir Dick Van Dyke: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business (#123) pretty much confirms this with a few surprising twists.

The surprises here have nothing to do with Hollywood shockers.  He states that right at the beginning of the book.  If you're looking for dirt, this isn't the place to find it.  What you do find instead are some amusing anecdotes about his life in show business and the many talented people he's had a chance to work with, and musings on just how lucky he was that the things he most enjoyed doing seemed to fall right into his lap, especially after he made the conscious decision to not appear in anything he would be ashamed to take his whole family to see.  How I wish there were more people like him in the entertainment business today!   He literally puts his money where his mouth is because he's a long way from being done with his mission of entertaining people.

What was surprising to me was that while he was in the midst of his successful TV career that he was active in his church and involved in various social justice causes.  While he has a number of photos in his memoir of his stage, screen and TV roles, he also chose to include photos of himself on stage with Martin Luther King, Jr., and in Lyndon B. Johnson's Oval Office with a group receiving a proclamation for the Brotherhood of Christians and Jews. 

Not that his life has been entirely sunny.  He has survived and overcome personal problems and tragedies but he doesn't make himself the hero of his own story.  Instead, he's put his energy into trying to understand the meaning and life lessons that can be learned from these episodes.  I've got to admire someone who will turn to the likes of Dieder Bonhofer for inspiration in times of trouble.

And I was also impressed with his loyalty to those who helped Dick Van Dyke along his way from a childhood friend who used to do magic tricks with him and showed him how much fun it was to have an audience, and writers like Carl Reiner who knew just what to do with the raw talent that launched Dick into the public's eye on his hit TV show, to the young fellow Dick met in a Starbucks a few years ago whose group of musical friends continue to entertain with him at charity events and hospitals now and into the foreseeable future.

How nice to find someone that someone whom I've always admired has given me even more reasons to be a fan.  You go, Dick!