A spoonful of sugar didn’t do the trick this time.
Dick Van Dyke, 99, pulled out of a comedy event last minute at the Vandy Camp in Malibu, California June 28, due to an illness, his wife Arlene Silver explained.
During a speech at the Malibu High School’s Dick Van Dyke Theater June 28, the 53-year-old admitted she’s “not the Van Dyke you’re expecting.”
“I have to inform you that Dick is not up to coming to celebrate with us today,” Arlene told the crowd per People. “I’m sorry.”
“When you’re 99 and a half years old, you have good days and bad days,” she continued. “And unfortunately, today is not a good day for him, and he’s sick that he can’t be here.”
However, fans still got a look at the Mary Poppins alum when he appeared during a livestream. And he hopes he’s already on the mend. As his wife (who is 46 years his junior) shared, she is “pretty confident” he would be there for the next show.
The Tony, Grammy and Emmy winner—just an Oscar shy of an EGOT—has shed light on he maintains his health as he nears 100.
“I’ve always exercised three days a week,” Van Dyke exclusively told E! News last June. “I work out with weights and the treadmill also and try to keep that up. You can’t stay young forever. You can stay young-minded forever. That’s why I never grew up.”
His work, of course, plays a key role in that. “I got in show business, which is not working for a living,” he shared at the time. “It’s pretending. I just play like I’ve been making believe for 80 years. And I can’t call it work. It isn’t. I just love everything I do.”
“I really don’t have any complaints at all,” the entertainer added. “If I had my life to live over, I’d do it exactly the same.”
