Get On the Floor: Legend Dick Van Dyke, A Week Shy of 99, Shows Off His Dance Moves in New Music Video/Tribute
You’re never too old to dance. Especially when you’re Dick Van Dyke.
The legendary comedian turns 99 on December 13th, so what better time than now to make his debut as a video music star? Van Dyke joins Coldplay frontman Chris Martin to dance, sing and joke around for the video to the song “All My Love,” which dropped Spike Jonze’s extended director’s cut on Friday.
A shorter version of the video, shot at Van Dyke’s home in Malibu, will be released on Van Dyke’s birthday.
Van Dyke also appears with his wife, Arlene Silver, and his family, and tells the camera his thoughts on aging, reflects on his lengthy (and ongoing) career in television, and even shares his views on love, in keeping with the theme of the song.
“What is love? They’ve been attacking that question for centuries,” Van Dyke says in the clip. “I don’t know. It’s certainly the feeling of caring about the welfare and the life of the other person as much as you care for yourself.”
Early photographs of Van Dyke’s family and from his long career, including a picture with Mary Tyler Moore, his co-star on the The Dick Van Dyke Show, and various Mary Poppins memorabilia items appear on screen under the music. Van Dyke, in a suit and tie but no shoes, dances and shows of some of his old comic moves.
Van Dyke said he considers himself “one of those lucky people who got to do for a living what I would have done anyway. When you think how lucky I am, I got to do what I do: play and act silly.”
At one point in the video, Van Dyke waxes hopeful approaching the end of his life. “I’m acutely aware that I…can go any day now, but I don’t know why it doesn’t concern me.”
“I’m not afraid of it,” he added. “I have that feeling, totally against anything intellectual, that I’m going to be all right.”
Thursday, Martin and Van Dyke appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where Martin said that it was his and Jonze’s idea to cast Van Dyke in the video. Martin said that he and Van Dyke are neighbors, and that they had met several years ago.
“This really may be the most fun thing I’ve ever done,” Martin said of the video. “It makes me so grateful. It’s a big deal for me.”