At the very least, it’s a pretty funny thing for a 99 year old to say. Van Dyke has a dark sense of humor sometimes (“Fortunately I won’t be around to experience the four years,” he said after the most recent presidential election). But as he explained to The A.V. Club writer Caitlin PenzeyMoog’s grandma back in 2015, “You have to be able to laugh at yourself. Attitude is almost more important than what happens to you.” The Mary Poppins star definitely has a good attitude, plus humor and humility to boot. “I brag sometimes about how I made it to a hundred and the truth is, if I had known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself,” he said. “And it is frustrating because I don’t know what I did right. Other than [wife Arlene Silver], I didn’t do anything right.”
It’s hard to imagine what Van Dyke got wrong, considering everything he’s accomplished—last year he became the oldest person ever to win a Daytime Emmy, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But as he told us in 2015, “[People] think I’m talking like I’m in perfect health, but I have all the infirmities for my age. I have arthritis and all those things. But if you keep moving”—which happens to be the title of his memoir—”that won’t bother you.”
At the time, Van Dyke did dispense some wisdom in regards to aging, including the “most important thing,” which is that “even if it hurts a little, don’t ever go down the stairs sideways.” He advised, “It feels a little better to the knees, but that begins to throw the hip out, and then the spine, and before you know it you’re on a walker.” As for the meaning of life, “I think the Buddhists always had the best answer,” he told The A.V. Club. “You need someone to love, and something to do that you enjoy, and something to hope for, and that’s enough for me.”
