Dick Van Dyke Still Going Strong at Age 93: Here's How He Does it
At age 93, famed entertainer Dick Van Dyke is flourishing.
Fresh off his performance in “Mary Poppins Returns” in 2018, Van Dyke is still working, still moving and enjoying life with all the enthusiasm of his younger years.
Aside from Van Dyke crediting his long life with “good genes and not getting hit by a bus,” the actor sat down with Closer Weekly to talk about aging and what fuels his longevity.
“I just love what I do,” Van Dyke told Closer Weekly. “I’ve been one of those lucky people that got to do something for a living that he would have done for nothing. That’s why I’m still here — They can’t get me off the stage.”
Van Dyke has always been a mover and a doer and credits his commitment to daily exercise and movement for his ability to tap-dance through his 90s.
“I’ve always been an exerciser and still am,” the actor said. “I go to the gym three days a week, get in the pool and exercise. At my age, they say to keep moving. Put me on solid ground and I’ll start tapping!“
In a 2015 interview with NPR, Van Dyke addressed the topic of aging, giving seniors his advice on how optimism and physical movement play key roles in living a happy winter season.
In many ways, Van Dyke is just like the rest of us — he, too, does not always feel like going to the gym. But he goes anyway, because he knows it’s for his own good.
He struggles with arthritis, admits he wishes he would not have spent so much of his life smoking and drinking and has come to terms with the fact that he cannot do it all like he used to.
But a good attitude keeps him going, along with a healthy dose of dancing and singing, which he says is better done poorly than not at all.
“It’s more in my nature to be optimistic, I think,” Van Dyke told NPR. “I’m one of those people who gets up on the right side of the bed in the morning. I get up and have a cup of coffee and go to the gym because I talk myself out of it because I will as anybody will.”
When you find something you enjoy, pursue it, Van Dyke recommended, and when something becomes too much for your body, let it go.
“I can’t handle the tennis court anymore,” Van Dyke said of one activity he no longer does. “I can still run and dance and sing.”
“The point is to enjoy,” the actor said. “You have to pick what you enjoy doing, what fulfills you, what interests you.”
Van Dyke is currently slated to play a starring role in a comedy film titled “Capture the Flag,” a heartwarming story about elderly military veterans who compete for the coveted job of raising the American flag every day in their community.
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