Hollywood icon Dick Van Dyke sat down for a new interview after his 98th birthday (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Dick Van Dyke is a ‘pretty lazy’ person he’s admitted, just days after turning 98.
The celebrated actor, who is best known for his roles in classic musical films like Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, explained that despite his successful movie career, he has found himself unemployed a lot of the time over the years.
He claimed that was because he was always just waiting around for an opportunity to come his way rather than going after it ‘aggressively’.
In a new interview, the Emmy winning TV star, who appeared on The Masked Singer US earlier this year as their oldest-ever contestant, revealed: ‘As a businessman, I’m not much good. I would do a movie or something and come home and just sit down and wait for the phone to ring.
‘I wasn’t aggressive, so I was out of work a lot because I didn’t go out and look for it. I didn’t mind it – I’m pretty lazy, really. When I’m having fun, all right, but I’m a lazy person.’
Van Dyke told the CBS Sunday Mornings programme that he didn’t ‘have a lot of drive’ and had instead just been ‘very lucky’.
The actor claimed that he was ‘lazy’ as a person, having never ‘aggressively’ gone after jobs during his celebrated career (Picture: Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images)
Van Dyke’s most well-known role remains that of Bert in Mary Poppins opposite Julie Andrews (Picture: Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock)
Parts he’s missed out on over the years include that of suave agent James Bond, with the star bringing up again the offer reportedly given to him by producers over the phone following Sean Connery’s exit from the franchise.
His response? Iconic.
‘I said, “Have you heard my British accent?”,’ the star laughed, miming putting down the phone as he insisted the story was true.
Van Dyke has, of course, famously been criticised over the years for his unique take on a Cockney accent for his part of chimney sweep Bert in Mary Poppins.
However, the Bye Bye Birdie actor did go on to admit that his career has been a ‘blessing’ in life and that he has sympathy for those who have enjoyed up in a job they dislike.
The star with wife Arlene Silver, 52, who makes him keep up his famous gym routine still (Picture: Getty)
He added: ‘My whole career has depended on that. If I’m not enjoying myself, I’m really bad. I am. It’s such a blessing to find a way of making a living that you love, that’d you do for nothing.’
He said he felt ‘sorry for people who hate their jobs’ as he was able to ‘look forward to going to work every morning’.
The Disney Legend also reflected on the fact that there are not many of his industry peers still alive today, following the recent death of his close friend Norman Lear at 101 earlier this month.
(L-R) Van Dyke with pals Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Norman Lear in 2017 (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Van Dyke quipped that if he thought he was still going to be alive so close to his 100th birthday, he would have made more of an effort to look after himself.
‘Everybody I knew and worked with, there’s no one left. As I’ve said, if I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.’
Having said that, he explained that he was still going to the gym three times a week, thanks to his wife, make-up artist Arlene Silver, 52.
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The Hollywood star was keeping it real.