Dick Van Dyke, 99, reveals painful injury that left him unable to work

Dick Van Dyke’s illustrious career has included several highs and a few lows, and he is looking back on an unfortunate one in a new interview.

The Hollywood icon, 99, spoke with Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen for the former’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, joined by his wife Arlene Silver.

The foursome spoke about Dick’s career highlights, making some of the most well-remembered musicals of all time, and the challenges that came along with it, plus fond memories of Dick and Arlene’s early days as a couple.

At the top of the interview, Ted, 77, and Mary, 71, gushed to the actor about watching the 1968 classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in bed together in preparation for their conversation.

The Cheers star then asked Dick about sustaining an injury during the making of the film, which the actor revealed to be true, coming from a particularly painful dance sequence.

“Like the other dancers, who warm up, I didn’t warm up before a dance number,” he joked at first. “And I’m twice their age!”

Recalling a scene where the characters dance in a bakery, he continued: “I had to kick up…I stuck my foot out and tore the muscle in the back of my leg,” which made Ted momentarily recoil.

The injury left the performer unable to work for a while, as he explained: “We shot other stuff ’til I healed up.” Looking back on other risky moves from the movie, Dick explained that even when he was on Broadway, he went all in with his performance and never prepped his body accordingly.

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“The kids will be out on the stage warming up, I never warmed up, I never vocalized, nothing! Just walk out and do it,” he admitted with a laugh. “Very unprofessional of me.”

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Another one of Dick’s most iconic musical roles came up when he and Arlene, 53, spoke about how they first met — 1964’s Mary Poppins.

“I was backstage in the green room of SAG Awards,” Dick remembered. “And was just sitting there by myself. And she walked by, and for the first time in my life, I approached [someone], I just jumped up, I said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick,’ almost without thinking.” 

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“I introduced myself, and I was totally in love at first sight. And I found out she was a makeup lady, and I said, you can come on my show.”

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However, at that point, Arlene asked if he could remember what her response to him was, and she revealed that while she was well aware of who the legendary star was, she hadn’t actually seen him in anything.

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“I said, I had never seen anything,” she explained, to which her husband added: “She’d never seen Mary Poppins…It was kind of good for me because she wasn’t over impressed or anything. I was just a guy.”

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Six years after that chance encounter in 2006, Dick and Arlene tied the knot. They now live together in the actor’s Malibu mansion, which they’ve dubbed “Vandy Manor” and serves as a popular museum of Dick Van Dyke memorabilia.