Legendary actor Dick Van Dyke has been married twice and has four children. He posed with his kids and grandkids on Father’s Day.
Richard Wayne Van Dyke is an American actor, entertainer, and comedian. His award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television, and stage.
Van Dyke is the recipient of multiple awards, including a Golden Globe, a Tony, a Grammy, a Daytime Emmy, and four Primetime Emmys.
Away from the screens, he is a proud father and has been married twice, and is currently with his second wife. He has lost two of his lovers along his journey including his ex-partner and one of his girlfriends.
On Father’s Day, he shared loved-up videos and images of his family. But, what is known about his children, his spouse, and his ex-wife? Read on for more.
Who is Van Dyke married to?
The famed actor was born on December 13, 1925, in West Plains, Missouri, United States.
Van Dyke began his career as an entertainer on radio and television, in nightclubs, and on the Broadway stage. In 1961, he starred in the original production of Bye Bye Birdie, a role which earned him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Carl Reiner then cast him as Rob Petrie on the CBS television sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1966, which made him a household name. He went on to star in the movie musicals Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Mary Poppins (1964), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and in the comedy-drama The Comic (1969).
Van Dyke also made guest appearances on television programs Columbo (1974) and The Carol Burnett Show (1977) and starred in The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971–74), Diagnosis: Murder (1993–2001), and Murder 101 (2006–08). Van Dyke has also made appearances in the films Dick Tracy (1990), Curious George (2006), Night at the Museum (2006), Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).
Throughout his career, which spans from 1947 to the present, he has been married twice but has been in other relationships. Unfortunately, he’s faced crucial losses in his love life.
In an interview with Yahoo!, Dick was asked how he stays so “youthful” and he replied: “Genes, I guess, for one thing. Having a beautiful young wife half my age to take care of me – that works! My positive attitude, I get that from my wife.”
So, who is Dick Van Dyke married to right now? The award-winning actor has been married twice but his current wife is Arlene Silver whom he married in 2012 and they are still together. Prior to Silver, Van was married for over 30 years to Margie Willett. They were together from 1948 to 1984.
Willett grew up with Dick in Danville, Illinois, and married the actor on the radio show Bride and Groom in 1948, he told the Guardian. The pair split in 1984, and Dick began a relationship with Michelle Triola. Dick and Triola never married, but they lived together for over 30 years. Willett died of pancreatic cancer in 2007, and Triola died of lung cancer two years later.
Dick married Arlene Silver, a singer, dancer, and video director, in 2012. Silver met her future husband at the SAG Awards in 2006, where she was working as a makeup artist. “There was something about her beautiful eyes,” Van Dyke told PEOPLE.
Although she found him familiar, she didn’t immediately place where she knew him from. “I knew him, I just didn’t know how I knew him,” Silver said. “I like that I knew him as a man before I knew him as a performer.”
Van Dyke’s longtime love Michelle Triola died from lung cancer in 2009, and Silver was there for him during his grief. “Arlene would come by after work and bring me food,” he told PEOPLE. “She was such a support, I fell in love.” She moved into Van Dyke’s Malibu home in 2011.
Van Dyke has also told PEOPLE that he’s the kind of person who loves to be in love. “I have a few friends who have always enjoyed living alone,” he said of his late-in-life romance. “But for some reason, that just isn’t the life for me. You gotta have somebody to love.”
Who are Dick Van Dyke’s children? He has four kids with his late ex-wife Margie Willett.
In 1967, Dick was named Father of the Year by the National Father’s Day Committee. According to him, it wasn’t without his struggles, however. “I tried to be a good role model to my children, but I was an alcoholic for 25 years, which inevitably impacted on family life,” the Masked Singer contestant told the Guardian in 2016. “When I went into therapy, I realized I was repeating my father’s mistakes.”
In a 2011 interview with USA Today, the actor and proud dad revealed “They all turned out great, I’m happy to say,” “Not a horse thief in the bunch.”
So, who are Dick Van Dyke’s kids? Van Dyke shares his four children, Christian Van Dyke, Barry Van Dyke, Stacy Van Dyke, and Carrie Beth Van Dyke, with his late ex-wife Margie Willett, to whom he was married for 36 years.
All four of Dick and Willett’s children made their Hollywood debuts early on in life, appearing in episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Diagnosis: Murder, and The New Dick Van Dyke Show, according to MeTV.
“It’s one way to get to see your grown kids,” Dick joked to CNN in 1998. “Barry’s teenage sons were on, and I had my daughter Stacy on the show, too. That’s carrying nepotism to its ultimate!”
Dick Van Dyke, 97, celebrated Father’s Day with his kids and grandkids: ‘I’m a very lucky boy!’
On the day to celebrate fathers all over the world, the Mary Poppins actor, 97, posted a carousel of photos to his Instagram in celebration of Father’s Day.
In the photos, the star posed with his kids, grandkids, and wife Arlene Silver. “I never realized when I was first having kids what I was starting,” Van Dyke began his caption.
“But, I’m amazed and grateful to have lived long enough to spend Father’s Day with some of my kids, grandchildren AND great grandchildren!! All wonderful, non-toxic people!! And to share it all with my greatest gift @bijoubox in our magical fairyland @vandymanor I’m a very lucky boy!! @wesvandyke_fineart.”
Here’s everything to know about Dick Van Dyke’s four children: Christian, Barry, Stacy, and Carrie Beth.
Christian Van Dyke
Christian is the first child of Van Dyke and his late ex-wife Margie Willett. They gave birth to him in 1950 and he is currently in his early 70s.
He followed his father’s footsteps in the acting business as he made his debut on January 31, 1961, on The Dick Van Dyke Show but didn’t stay in Hollywood for long as he switched to law.
He is currently a lawyer after graduating from Occidental College in Los Angeles before heading to Arizona State University to earn a law degree, according to Cascade Business News.
Barry Van Dyke
Barry is the second child of actor Van Dyke and his late ex-wife Margie Willett. He was born on July 31, 1951. He was passionate about his father’s business and stuck with the field long after his 1961 appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show at 9 years old.
Despite his early interest in the craft, however, he wasn’t a child actor, as Dick made his son wait until he was older to pursue a career in acting. “He wanted me to have my childhood. He told me that if I still wanted to act after I graduated high school, then it would be okay,” Barry told the Los Angeles Times in 1994.
Unlike his older brother, Barry has remained in Hollywood as an actor and even met his wife Mary Carey at a local movie theater. In 1974, he and Mary tied the knot. The pair share four children: sons Carey, Shane, Wes, and daughter Taryn.
Stacy Van Dyke
Like her big brothers, Stacy Van Dyke, born around 1955, appeared on screen alongside her famous father in roles like Sally on The New Dick Van Dyke Show and Carol Hilton on Diagnosis: Murder.
According to her father, Stacy also caught the acting bug early on. “I’ve watched Stacy perform in school plays for years, but I never realized how good she was until we did a benefit together in Phoenix,” Dick said of his oldest daughter’s talent ahead of her TV debut.
In the 1970s, Stacy was performing at the Windmill Dinner Theater in the performing group the Barnstormers, according to Phoenix Theater History. In July 1979, the Arizona Republic reported that Stacy married Mike Breen, a musician who was also part of the group. Little else is known of Stacy’s personal life, however, as she has largely stayed out of the public eye.
She was last seen in the 2002 TV movie Diagnosis Murder: Town Without Pity, where she played Carol Sloan. In 2017, she and her husband released a recording of “Away In A Manger” ahead of the holiday season.
Carrie Beth Van Dyke
Carrie Beth Van Dyke is the youngest of Dick’s children. Born in 1961, she was the last of her siblings to appear on The New Dick Van Dyke Show, starring in two series episodes in the early ’70s.
Carrie has lived much of her life out of the limelight. In 1983, she married an actor and musician named Kevin McNally, who would later appear on 19 episodes of Diagnosis: Murder. The couple also met while working at the Windmill Dinner Theater. In 2015, McNally published a song on SoundCloud called “Searching Your Eyes”; he shared that he wrote and recorded the song when he and Carrie first began dating. The song also features her sister Stacy and Stacy’s husband Breen.
The couple later moved to L.A. and welcomed two children. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in 2008.