Dick Van Dyke is celebrating his incredible life and career this year thanks to a CBS special titled Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic, set to air on December 21.
Ahead of the special, which sees several actors and friends of the star come together to recreate his iconic work on the revamped set of The Dick Van Dyke Show, the star sat down with CBS News Sunday Morning to discuss his zest for life and keeping on going 98 years down the line.
Speaking with Tracy Smith, the 98-year-old opened up about whether he'd ever wondered why he was still around while some of his closest colleagues and friends like Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, and Mary Tyler Moore were gone.
Van Dyke responded with a chuckle: "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would've taken better care of myself," adding: "I went through that whole period of alcoholism."
The Mary Poppins star struggled with alcoholism for several years and had even checked himself into a hospital for three weeks in 1972. Since then, he has been sober and supports others going through similar struggles.
He continued on CBS: "But my wife, god bless her, makes sure I go to the gym three times a week and do a full workout."
In a 2016 OWN special Where Are They Now?, Van Dyke told Oprah Winfrey that he initially found alcohol as a form of solace when it came to overcoming his shyness.
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"I was very shy – with strangers – I couldn't talk to people," he said. "And I found if I had a drink, it would loosen me up. The barriers went down and I became very social. That's what got me started."
However, while it provided a foundation for his trademark enthusiasm, it manifested in unhealthy ways quickly. "It took me a long time to get over it."
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Van Dyke is now adamant about using his influence to turn a negative into a positive. "I get a lot of letters from people, who say all of a sudden they weren't ashamed to admit they had a drinking problem and they got help. So, I'm very proud of that."
In a recent conversation with People, the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star got candid about what's saddest about growing older, which is losing the people he'd loved and worked with during his heyday.
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"I had a bunch of friends there to say nice things, but Mary Tyler Moore, Morey [Amsterdam] and Rosie [Rose Marie], Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, all the people that I always loved and associated with are gone, so I'm having to make new friends," he told the outlet.
Fortunately, he added that the idea of making new friends came rather naturally to him. "I'm happy to say people come to me. I don't have to go out looking."
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