Actor reflected on his career, from highlights to missed opportunities, ahead of his 100th birthday in December
Dick Van Dyke has revealed his only regrets from his decades in Hollywood ahead of his 100th birthday next month.
While reflecting on his 75-year career during an interview with Today show’s Al Roker, the legendary actor said there are only two opportunities he regrets turning down — and one of them is playing James Bond after Sean Connery left the franchise.
“They said, ‘Would you like to be Bond?’ And I said, ‘Have you heard my British accent?'” Van Dyke said, explaining that his famously exaggerated Cockney accent in Mary Poppins would not have worked for the role of Agent 007.
However, Van Dyke says he wishes he had taken the job and said it would “have been a great experience,” though he was not sure that audiences would have accepted his departure from the family-friendly movies he was best known for at the time.
In addition to turning down the Bond franchise, the veteran actor said he regretted never doing a movie with Cary Grant before his death in 1986.
“I regret that every day of my life. I turned Cary Grant down. I don’t believe it,” he told the outlet.
However, Van Dyke is not done acting and said he has no plans to retire, joking that he is “looking for work right now.” The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star said there is still one role he is still eyeing.
“I always wanted to play Scrooge,” Van Dyke said with a laugh. He added, “I could do it. It’s just November. I’ve still got time.”
Van Dyke will celebrate his 100th birthday December 13. A documentary about his life will be released in theaters on his birthday weekend.
The actor quipped in recent interviews that he might not even make it to 100.
Before the milestone birthday, he opened up about the sadness of aging and surviving all of his contemporaries in a health diary for The Times, writing, “Every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds.”
He credited much of his long life to his wife, 54-year-old Arlene Silver, who keeps him moving and dancing. The couple has been married since 2012.
“Without question, our ongoing romance is the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch,” Van Dyke wrote.
“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.”
