Dick Van Dyke’s Secret to Longevity: Love Across Hollywood’s Biggest Age Gap

When Dick Van Dyke danced on the rooftops belting out ‘chim chiminey’ in the beloved 1964 movie Mary Poppins, his future wife Arlene Silver was not even born.

Indeed, their paths wouldn’t cross until a chance meeting at the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards, four decades after the legendary actor had completed his triumvirate of Grammy, Emmy and Tony Awards.

At the time, Dick was closely linked with actress Michelle Triola Marvin, with whom he conducted an affair which ended his first marriage to Margue Willet.

But within six years, Dick and Arlene had tied the knot, opening up Hollywood’s biggest age gap relationship as the 86-year-old and 40-year-old walked down the aisle.

At one point Al Pacino, 85, and Noor Alfallah, 31 – with a 54 year age gap between them – held the crown, but they have since split, after welcoming a baby in 2023.

Now, as the star prepares to turn 100 in December, he and Arlene, now 54, are more in love than ever despite some 46 years between them. 

The couple have been open about the secrets of their success, pointing to their mutual love for singing, dancing and looking after one another as the keys to their stability.

Indeed, Dick has now credited his wife with keeping him active in his later years, telling The Sunday Times: ‘I met Arlene in 2006 and she quickly became my soulmate and the love of my life. 

‘Without question, our ongoing romance is the most important reason I have not withered away into a hermetic grouch.

‘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.’

Far from hindering their relationship, Arlene recently claimed that couples without such an age gap simply ‘don’t last’. 

In an interview with People magazine on Monday, the makeup artist, now 53, joined her husband Dick in lifting the lid on life at their California home, where they held the first Vandy Camp event last month.

‘We just love being home,’ she said. ‘We love Malibu, and it’s our favourite place, our house especially. 

‘So this is like you’re at our house. We’re so grateful. Our house did get hit by the Franklin fire, but in the scheme of things, we got very lucky.’ 

Arlene also explained that Dick regularly encourages her to achieve her dreams and makes her feel like she can ‘do anything’, to which the iconic actor responded, ‘and you can’.

She described the success of their love as ‘eerie’ and put it down to them supporting one another in everything they do.

Dick had four children with ex-wife Margue, all older than Arlene, before the pair split up in 1984 following 36 years of marriage.

He described the game-changing moment the pair met in 2006 and how he broke the habit of a lifetime by approaching a woman and introducing himself. 

The star recalled in January that Arlene’s lack of awareness of his fame actually helped the pair in their early days.

He told the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast: ‘She didn’t know who I was. She’d never seen Mary Poppins.’

‘No, that’s not true,’ Arlene interjected. ‘Of course I know who he is. He’s Dick Van Dyke.’ 

But despite Dick being one of his generation’s biggest stars, drawing in huge audiences on the CBS sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show before broadening his fanbase through Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, his wife had not been among his die-hard fanbase.

‘I had never seen the Dick Van Dyke Show, I never saw anything he was in,’ she joked on Entertainment Tonight in 2024. 

But Arlene was also hooked immediately, previously telling the Huffington Post how exciting it was seeing Dick for the first time ‘at the catering table with his bow tie and his big smile’.

The pair remained just pals for some time after their memorable first meeting, leaving the dating stage until they had established a firm friendship. 

Things entered a new phase in 2009 when Michelle died and Arlene spent time visiting Dick to comfort him through a tough period.

He told People in 2013: ‘Arlene would come by after work and bring me food. She was such a support, I fell in love. My grandkids called her Grandma. My four kids just loved her.’ 

Arlene entered this new stage of their relationship with a bit more trepidation, but was grateful to receive support from those close to her.

She said: ‘We were friends for so long that when I told people that I know, they were happy about [our relationship], and I was scared. 

‘But it’s so irrelevant. I think when you see us together, it’s like you don’t even think about it. We don’t think about it, we just meet in the middle.’

Their huge age gap is nullified by the fact Dick refuses to act like a typical 99-year-old and the couple often point to their shared love of singing and dancing as the fuel that drives their marriage.

‘I had no idea she was half my age,’ he said. ‘Beautiful. I was fortunate that I didn’t grow up. We were meant to be.’

‘I’ve never met anyone like him,’ she echoed. ‘He’s always happy and just positive. Always singing, and I would never sing in public. 

‘He got me to sing. He got me to sing up on a stage and sang in front of 1,500 people for the first time. He’s just the most joyful person. He influences everybody else to be more joyful, playful.’ 

Speaking to Closer Weekly in 2022, Arlene gave an insight into the Bye Bye Birdie star’s infectious personality, saying: ‘He is the most perfect human being. 

‘I’ve never met anyone so happy, so genuine, so amazing. He’s just like a happy pill.’

They clearly share the same vibe, with Dick seeing similar positives in his wife’s character.

‘We share an attitude,’ he explained. ‘She can go with the flow. She loves to sing and dance, which we do almost every day. She’s just delightful.’

Above all, it seems they are very much attracted to one another. When asked by Yahoo how he is still going strong into his nineties, Dick simply said: ‘Having a beautiful young wife – that works.’

The icon, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame for his TV work, previously told NPR: ‘I have a beautiful, young wife who sings and dances, so there’s a lot of [duets] going on at my house.’

This, along with some lifestyle tweaks to bridge the vast generation gap, have served to prove some doubters wrong and ensure a happy marriage. 

Dick added: ‘I sometimes forget that we’re doing a great experiment here — 46 years difference. And we work at it to some extent. 

‘There’s got to be some understanding, find out what old habits don’t work anymore. It takes some adjusting and fitting in, but that’s part of the fun of it.’