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Dick Van Dyke almost didn’t get his most famous role as the cockney chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.
The beloved actor, 99, recently reflected on his life’s work while hosting Vandy High Tea, a charity event raising funds to benefit The Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts and the Dick Van Dyke Museum, which is currently in development, alongside his wife, Arlene Silver.
When asked how he got the part of Bert in Mary Poppins, Van Dyke admitted that the process “was so simple.”
“It is insane. I did an interview once, and in the interview I said, ‘I don’t think there’s enough good entertainment for kids,'” the actor recalled. “Walt Disney heard it, called me up, and gave me the part. It was that simple.”
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While Disney was on board with the casting, the author of the original books, Pamela Lyndon Travers, wasn’t a fan of Van Dyke playing the leading man, or anything else to do with the movie, for that matter, he said.
“She wasn’t crazy about anything,” Van Dyke shared. “The lady who wrote the book didn’t think I was right. Didn’t think Julie [Andrews] was right. She wanted all of the animation taken out.”
Van Dyke claimed that Travers went to Disney to request some changes, but he told her that “the boat has sailed.”
Van Dyke famously starred as a jack-of-all-trades chimney sweep named Bert in the 1964 film opposite Andrews, who played the film’s titular magical nanny. Mary Poppins won five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Andrews, now 90, along with Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
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In 2024, Van Dyke sat down for an interview as part of ABC News Studios’ special The Untold Story of Mary Poppins: A Special Edition of 20/20, timed to the 60th anniversary of the unforgettable Disney movie.
In a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Van Dyke recalled crying when the Sherman Brothers first played the now-iconic songs for him.
“I couldn’t believe, one tune after another,” he said. “I wept. It was just the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.”
Elsewhere during the Vandy High Tea event — which was produced by Chris Isaacson Presents and hosted at Van Dyke’s Malibu, Calif. home — the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star reflected on other highlights from his career, his upcoming 100th birthday and even sang for a young fan.
After decades of bringing “happiness” to the masses, Van Dyke was asked how he has kept up his chipper spirit all these years — and he immediately pointed to his wife, whom he wed in 2012.
“Well, the last 15 years she’s made me happy,” he said of Silver. “It took me a while to get her to marry me. But 15 years… yeah, I think that’s why I made it to 100.”
