Dick Van Dyke — whose eight decade career has included everything from classic sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show and iconic 1964 musical Mary Poppins, to ’90s crime drama Diagnosis Murder and a 2024 Coldplay video — has shocked the world by reaching the age of 99 in seemingly good health and high spirits. But, as he revealed in a November 13, 2025 article he penned for The Times (UK) about his secrets of aging, it’s not all enjoyable — in fact, all of the famous funnyman’s closest friends passed away before him, a situation that he finds extremely painful. “Every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds,” Van Dyke wrote.

How is Dick Van Dyke’s health?

Though he will turn 100 on December 13, 2025, Van Dyke has been surprisingly free of health issues. Despite an earlier struggle with alcohol that led him to quit drinking in 1972, as well as decades as a heavy smoker (he had admitted he chews nicotine gum to this day), Van Dyke has not been know to have suffered from any major illnesses or adverse health events. In late June 2025, Van Dyke cancelled a planned appearance at a fan event, Vandy Camp; his wife, Arlene Silver, announced that “When you’re 99-and-a-half years old, you have good days and bad days, and when you’re 40 years old, you have good days and bad days. Unfortunately, today is not a good day for him, and he’s sick that he can’t be here.”

Though this led some to speculate that Van Dyke was seriously ill, no further reports of illness were made, and Van Dyke reported, in his Times (UK) essay, that he still goes to the gym three times a week.

However, though he is physically quite well for a 99-year-old, Van Dyke wrote that “it’s frustrating to feel diminished in the world, physically and socially. I get invites to events or offers for gigs in New York or Chicago, but that kind of travel takes so much out of me that I have to say no. Almost all of my visiting with folks has to happen at my house.” He also noted that “though I still do guest spots on TV, and ads and videos, I miss going to the studio every day for a regular series.”

Is Dick Van Dyke lonely?

Though he credits his good health and outlook to his marriage to Silver, whom he wed in 2012 and who is 46 years younger than him (“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 wrote), Van Dyke still admitted that his longevity was actually difficult, because he had outlived his friends and peers.

“Every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds,” Van Dyke revealed. Though he does not specifically name which friends he is referring to, he might be including friend and collaborator Mary Tyler Moore, who died in 2017 at the age of 80, and Dick Van Dyke Show creator Carl Reiner, who died at the age of 98 in 2020.