DICK VAN DYKE IS 100 YEARS OLD TODAY!

Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor and comedian. His work spans screen and stage, and his awards include six Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, and then the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. He was recognized as a Disney Legend in 1998. He has been honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2020.

(From WIKIPEDIA)

Van Dyke often spoke of his admiration for silent film era comedians such as Buster Keaton and his hero Stan Laurel

Van Dyke had a chance to do his Stan Laurel impression on the Dick Van Dyke Show with Henry Calvin portraying Oliver Hardy.

With Nancy Kwan and Walt Disney

THE COMIC (1969) with Michele Lee and Mickey Rooney

A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (2006) with Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs

 

FITZWILLY, WHAT A WAY TO GO!, THE ART OF LOVE, DIVORCE AMERICAN STYLE, MARY POPPINS, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, NEVER A DULL MOMENT, BYE BYE, BIRDIE,  LT. ROBIN CRUSOE U.S.N.

COLUMBO - With Peter Falk and JoAnna Cameron in "Negative Reaction".

Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo and Dick Van Dyke as Paul Galesko

With Peter Falk, years after starring together in the Columbo episode "Negative Reaction

  

 

Barbara Bain, Patrick MacNee, Robert Culp, Robert Vaughn and Dick Van Dyke in

DIAGNOSIS MURDER

Dick Van Dyke reached the ripe old age of 100 on December 13th, 2025!

COLUMBO: The End of the Series

COLUMBO was an American TV series starring Peter Falk, which had its premiere  as a TV Movie of the Week on February 20, 1968 under the title PRESCRIPTION MURDER and also starring Gene Barry as Dr. Ray Flemming, a psychiatrist who murders his wife when she discovers he's having an affair with one of his patients. The movie pretty much establishes the character of Lt. Columbo of the LAPD. Here, Columbo establishes two of his most famous trademarks by needing to borrow a pencil and, just before leaving the psychiatrist's office, by saying, "There's one more thing . . . ". 

With Gene Barry

Three years later, on March 1st, 1971, the second COLUMBO TV Movie was telecast, starring Lee Grant as attorney Leslie Williams, who is so bored with her husband, she decides to fake his kidnapping after killing him and then plans to keep the ransom.

 Lee Grant

Finally, COLUMBO became one of three rotating programs of The NBC MYSTERY MOVIE and the first episode titled MURDER BY THE BOOK with guest star Jack Cassidy premiered on September 15, 1971. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history.

 Jack Cassidy

Robert Culp

 Robert Vaughn

 Dick Van Dyke

 John Cassavetes

Kim Hunter, Don Ameche and Ross Martin

 Susan Clark and Leslie Nielsen

Robert Vaughn

 Martin Landau

Jackie Cooper

 Patrick O'Neal

Donald Pleasence

Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan

Sally Kellerman, Patrick McGoohan and Rue McClanahan

And eventually, after some 69 episodes, COLUMBO appeared solving his last case, exactly twenty years ago, on January 30, 2003 in the episode COLUMBO LIKES THE NIGHTLIFE.

Peter Falk passed away on June 23rd, 2011 at 83.

After so many years it is understandable that some episodes were not as good as others but for me, the first seven seasons, from 1971 to 1978, were all winners.  Peter Falk had a long and distinguished career playing all sorts of roles, in comedy and drama but his ultimate legacy will always be as Lt. Columbo, the classic and unforgettable lieutenant who solved murders by sheer ingenuity, logic, lots of luck, and his uncanny powers of observation.

"Oh, there's one more thing!..."