|
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Buy this Photo at AllPosters.com
Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13,
1925 in West Plains, Missouri), usually credited as Dick Van Dyke, is a
noted American television and movie actor. He is most famous for his
starring roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (with Mary Tyler Moore) in the
1960s and Diagnosis: Murder as Dr. Sloan in the 1990s.
* * * *
Early days
Van Dyke's first major role was on stage in
Bye Bye Birdie in 1960, for which he won a Tony Award. He then starred
in his own highly-rated and critically acclaimed sitcom, The Dick Van
Dyke Show, about a staff of writers for The Alan Brady Show, a fictional
TV variety show conceptually based on the 1950s hit, Your Show of Shows.
The show divided its time between office and home, giving young
supporting player Mary Tyler Moore a good deal of exposure. The Dick Van
Dyke Show ran for five seasons – in the lead role of Rob Petrie, Van
Dyke won three Emmy Awards.
Movies
He slowly transitioned out of television
into movie acting in Bye Bye, Birdie (1963), What a Way to Go! (1964)
and, most notably, Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964), in which he played
Bert, a Cockney chimney sweep, and also played, in heavy disguise, the
elderly owner of the bank. Van Dyke's attempt at a Cockney accent (and
his tendency to lapse into and out of it) was widely ridiculed
(especially in the UK), but the very popular and innovative film also
showed his versatility as a singer and dancer. One of his showcase
songs, Chim Chim Chiree, won the Oscar for the film's songwriting team.
After the mid-1960s, Van Dyke was in a
number of relatively unsuccessful movies (though one, a children's film
called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, is still well-known, especially with the
recent stage musical).
Dramatic roles
In 1974, however Van Dyke surprised
everyone by appearing in his first dramatic role, as an alcoholic
businessman in The Morning After (1974 movie). Van Dyke received wide
acclaim and an Emmy nomination. Regarded by many as the most realistic
television film ever made dealing with alcoholism, it is sometimes shown
at treatment centers. The final scene in particular is regarded by many
as chilling and unforgettable. It was at this time that Van Dyke
admitted he had recently overcome a real-life drinking problem.
His career seemed essentially over by 1990
when Van Dyke, whose usual role had been the amiable hero, took a
villainous turn in Dick Tracy. He received positive reviews that led him
to star in a series of TV movies on CBS that became the foundation for
his popular television drama, Diagnosis: Murder, which ran from 1993 to
2001.
Influence
Dick Van Dyke was a great admirer of Stan
Laurel and even gave the eulogy at his funeral. He also produced a TV
special soon afterward, "A Tribute to Stan Laurel". He once met Laurel
and told him he had copied a great deal from him. He said Laurel only
laughed and said "I've noticed that".
Other Interests
One of Van Dyke's modern passions is
producing 3D computer graphics. He created many of the 3D rendered
effects shown in Diagnosis: Murder, did some of the special effects in
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and continues to work with LightWave 3D.
Van Dyke received a Grammy Award for his
performance on the soundtrack to Mary Poppins.
Personal life
Dick Van Dyke is the brother of actor Jerry
Van Dyke. Dick's son Barry Van Dyke and grandson Carry Van Dyke are also
actors: both Barry and Carry acted with Dick on Diagnosis: Murder.
* * * *
The
above biography has been copied in part or in whole
from an article on
Wikipedia.org
"The Free Encyclopedia." It has been modified under
the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the
following manner: (1) All links within the article
have been removed, including text links such as
"[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been
removed [if you would like to update the article,
you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table
of Contents links and text have been removed; and
(4) all of the sections of the original article have
not been copied. All of the above text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Document License.
URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Van_Dyke
Date Article Copied:
July 12, 2005
We
will try to replace this article with an original
biography in the near future, but we hope this will
be of help to our visitors in the mean time. |
