Last-minute cancellation sparks health concerns for 99-year-old icon Dick Van Dyke
Fans have been left concerned for the health of movie and comedy legend Dick Van Dyke after pulling out of an event last minute.
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Even legends need a sick day.
Dick Van Dyke, 99, had to skip a comedy event this weekend after coming down with an unspecified illness.
The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star was scheduled to host his musical fundraising event, Vandy Camp, on Saturday, June 28, but cancelled his appearance at the last minute, according to People.
His wife, Arlene Silver, announced the news at the Arlene & Dick Van Dyke Theater at Malibu High School.
She explained that Van Dyke was not having a “good day.”
“I have to inform you that Dick is not up to coming to celebrate with us today. I’m sorry,” Silver, 53, told the audience after introducing herself as “not the Van Dyke you’re expecting.”
“When you’re 99 and a half years old, you have good days and bad days, and unfortunately, today is not a good day for him, and he’s sick that he can’t be here,” she added.
Van Dyke ended up attending the show via livestream, and Silver said that she was “pretty confident” he would be at the next Vandy Camp event “in person.”
Elsewhere during the event, Silver emphasised her husband’s passion for the musical fundraiser and explained that Vandy Camp is more than “just Dick Van Dyke.”
“It is a celebration of your childhood, all of our childhoods, the music that’s in the fabric of all of us,” she said. “Dick Van Dyke is a big part of that.”
Silver also gushed about Van Dyke and their musical group, the a cappella quartet the Vantastix, for providing her with “so much confidence to be able to stand up here right now.”
“I would never be able to do this maybe, like, a year ago, but I’ve had so many experiences pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and right now I’m out of my comfort zone,” she said.
“But I have to wear my big girl pants and hold the reins without Dick here as the safety net that he’s always here with me,” Silver added.
Van Dyke and Silver, a makeup artist, first met at the SAG Awards in 2006 and married in 2012. They discussed their surprising 46-year age gap back in April.
The Dick Van Dyke Show legend has insisted that he has no plans of slowing down even despite turning 100 later this year.
“I’m a ham. I love it. I get a jolt of energy from an audience,” he said during another Vandy Camp event in April.
But living so long also has its downsides.
“I’ve lost a lot of friends,” Van Dyke lamented earlier this year while discussing the 2021 death of his late friend Ed Asner.
“He’s outlived everybody,” Silver added at the time. “That’s the curse of living to almost 100.”
Still, the entertainment legend isn’t complaining.
“Well, life’s been good to me,” Van Dyke acknowledged. “I can’t complain.”
This story first appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission.
Originally published as Last-minute cancellation sparks health concerns for 99-year-old icon Dick Van Dyke
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