Dick Van Dyke couldn't keep the smile off his face on Friday June 7 as he made history alongside his beloved wife Arlene Silver, 52.
Arlene, who looked gorgeous in a sky-blue wrap dress with lace sleeves, joined her husband as he made his way to the podium to a standing ovation to accept the Daytime Emmy for Guest Performance in a Daytime Drama Series. He is the oldest winner ever.
The pair married on February 29, 2012, six years after they met at the SAG awards when Dick was 82 and Arlene was 36; she was working as a makeup artist and he went on to hire her for other projects.
He gave her a sweet shout-out in his acceptance speech, joking: "Trouble and strife, the love of my life. She played the cop who arrested me."
Dick was nominated and won for his role as Timothy Robicheaux on Days Of Our Lives, which he began working on in September 2023.
“Thank you. I don’t believe this. I feel like a spy from nighttime television,” he exclaimed in his acceptance speech. “I’m the oldest nominee in history. I’ve been playing old men all my life. If I’d known I was going to live this long I’d have taken better care of myself.”
“I’m 98 years old, can you believe it? This tops a lifetime of 80 years in the business. I love you, God bless."
He joined Days of Our Lives in 2023 after telling his friend Drake Hogestyn, who has starred in the show since 1986, he wanted a role.
"I said, ‘Don’t you have any parts for old people? Come on, give me one.’ And he took me seriously and got me a part!" Dick told Access Hollywood in April.
"Some of the people have been doing it for 20 years. That’s all the homework I can do, watch one and see how they do it. The other thing, you have to hold, ‘Duh duh,’ there’s this thing of music, and we’ve said something exciting."
Dick was previously married to Margerie Willett; they wed on the radio show Bride and Groom. Together they welcomed four children: Christian, Barry, Stacy and Carrie Beth.
In 1976, Dick struck up a romance with longtime companion Michelle Triola Marvin, they never married but were together for over 30 years before her death in 2009.
Dick found fame in the 1960s with his sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, in which he portrayed a comedy writer named Rob Petrie; it co-starred Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam and a then-24-year-old Mary Tyler Moore, who played Rob's wife Laura Petrie. Dick won three Emmys back-to-back for the role.
He also won a Grammy Award for Mary Poppins, a fourth Emmy Award for his 1977 variety show Van Dyke and Company, and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in Bye Bye Birdie in 1961.
In 2021, the actor and singer was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors, with tributes pouring in from his Mary Poppins co-star Julie Andrews, Steve Martin, and Lin-Manuel Miranda