Dick Van Dyke doesn’t have any big plans for his 100th birthday — and that’s exactly how he likes it.
The actor’s wife, Arlene Silver, spoke about his milestone birthday during an interview Sunday with People at the premiere of Dick Van Dyke’s 100th Celebration in Malibu, California. According to Silver, Van Dyke won’t be having a big party; instead, he plans to stay at home with her.
“He doesn’t want to do anything,” the 54-year-old told the publication. “He wants to be in his room watching Jeopardy! reruns with me.”
She also acknowledged that she’s “so grateful” that Van Dyke — to whom she’s been married since 2012 — is here, with both his birthday and the release of his documentary film about his career, Dick Van Dyke 100th Celebration, coming up.
“I’m so happy he’s here to see what I know is going to be a global celebration of him. I’m so glad he’s still with us,” she added. “I’ve always been celebrating him now, like since 2011 when I got him on social media. It’s like a pinnacle of all that is … all these different people from different events we’ve done, [just] so cool.”
“I’m so honored to have him in my life, take care of him, and nurture this community that we’ve built, that he’s built over the years,” she added about the Mary Poppins star.
The couple first met at the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Silver was working, and Van Dyke was appearing during the ceremony. Although Van Dyke was 81 and she was 35 at the time, the two didn’t strike up a romance until after Van Dyke’s longtime partner, Michelle Triola Marvin, died from lung cancer in 2009.
In 1984, Van Dyke finalized his split from his first wife, Margie Willett, who died in 2008. The pair welcomed four children — Christian, 75, Barry, 74, Stacy, 69, and Carrie, 63 — together.
Leading up to his 100th birthday, Van Dyke has also shared his secrets to living a long life. He told People last month that he has successfully avoided anger and hate, which is “one of the chief things that kept me going.”
According to the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star, he was “never really able to work up a feeling of hate” and attributes reaching 99 to his “brighter outlook.”
“I’ve always thought that anger is one thing that eats up a person’s insides – and hate,” he explained. “There were things I didn’t like, people I don’t like and disapprove of. But I never really was able to do a white heat kind of hate.”
However, in a health diary for The Times, also published in November, he confessed that he feels “diminished” both “physically and socially.” He also revealed that “every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds.”
Still, he credited much of his survival to his wife. “Without question, our ongoing romance is the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch,” he wrote in the diary.
“Arlene is half my age, and she makes me feel somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters my age, which is still saying a lot,” he added.
