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Dick Van Dyke is an iconic actor — and his eight decades in show business have made him a very rich man.
Van Dyke caught the acting bug while serving in the armed forces during World War II. Initially a radio announcer, he eventually transferred to the military’s entertainment branch, the Special Services.
In a 2017 interview with Harry Connick Jr., the Mary Poppins star shared that he and a friend moved to Los Angeles in 1947 to try their luck with a comedy act and “one thing led to another.”
He never looked back.
Dick Van Dyke accepted the Britannia Award for Excellence in Television at the 2017 AMD British Academy Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills on October 27, 2017. “I look forward to going to work every morning,”… Dick Van Dyke accepted the Britannia Award for Excellence in Television at the 2017 AMD British Academy Britannia Awards in Beverly Hills on October 27, 2017. “I look forward to going to work every morning,” he has said of his eight-decade career in show business. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for BAFTA LA
One of Van Dyke’s first steady gigs in Hollywood came when an Army pal working at CBS helped him land a seven-year contract with the network. He appeared on multiple programs such as The Pat Boone Show and The Andy Williams Show.
The aspiring star became a household name thanks to his character Rob Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show, which aired from 1961 to 1966. “He was Rob Petrie at home,” Van Dyke’s son, Barry, once said. “That’s really him. He always played himself. Fans of his feel like they know him because that’s the real Dick Van Dyke you see on the screen.”
Van Dyke honed his craft on the job, including perfecting his dance moves while performing in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie. He went on to make his first film in the 1963 movie adaptation of the stage production.
Still, the prolific star admitted in a 2023 CBS News Sunday Morning interview that he started his career slowly. “As a businessman, I’m not much good,” he said. “I would do a movie or something and come home, and just sit down and wait for the phone to ring. I wasn’t aggressive. So I was out of work a lot, because I didn’t go out and look for it.”
Van Dyke scored perhaps one of his most enduring movie roles in the 1964 classic film Mary Poppins, thanks to saying the right thing at the right time. Walt Disney “had heard me say in an interview that there wasn’t enough family entertainment around, and on that basis, he hired me,” the performer revealed.
Initially cast as Bert the chimney sweeper, Van Dyke had to use some of his own money to convince Disney to let him also take on the role of banker Mr. Dawes. “I said, ‘I’ll do it for nothing.’ Actually, I had to give him $4,000 dollars. I had to pay him to do the part,” he explained in 2018 on ABC‘s Mary Poppins Returns: Behind the Magic – A Special Edition of 20/20.
The Emmy Hall of Fame Award winner continued raking in the dough with standout roles in films like the 1968 children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and on popular television programs such as The New Dick Van Dyke Show in the early 1970s and Diagnosis: Murder, which ended its nearly 10-year run in 2001. Among his many projects, he also went on to star in Night at the Museum (2006) and its sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009), playing the character Cecil Fredericks in both films.
Most recently, he filmed a video for Coldplay’s single “All My Love,” released just months before Van Dyke’s 99th birthday on December 13, 2024.
With all his success in the entertainment industry, the comedy legend’s net worth was estimated in 2024 to be a staggering $50 million, which includes his Malibu mansion, valued at around $8 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
“If I’m not enjoying myself, I’m really bad,” Van Dyke said of performing. “It’s such a blessing to find a way of making a living that you love, that you’d do for nothing. I feel so sorry for people who hate their jobs. I look forward to going to work every morning.”
