‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’: Which Actors Are Still Alive?
The Dick Van Dyke Show was the 30 Rock of the 1960s. The former TV show focused on the home and work life of TV comedy writer Rob Petrie and his relationships with his co-stars, who also wrote for the fictional Alan Brady Show. Rob lived with his wife and son in New Rochelle, New York.
The Dick Van Dyke Show showcased the daily life and comic scenarios that Rob often found himself in with his work colleagues, family, and friends. The series was based on a real show as its creator Carl Reiner made the series using his experience as the head writer of Your Show of Shows.
Dick Van Dyke‘s character, Rob, was based on Reiner, while Reiner played Alan Brady, who said the character was a combination of Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle. The Dick Van Dyke Show ran for five seasons and aired its last episode on June 1, 1966, but are there any actors from the show who are still alive?
Dick Van Dyke is alive and still energetic
The star of the comedy and whom the show was named after, is very much still alive and kicking. The kicking part isn’t just a figure of speech as Dick Van Dyke is still a song-and-dance man. Van Dyke’s character Rob was loved for his goofy but charming personality.
There wasn’t any issue Rob faced that he couldn’t get out of. During his time on the eponymous show, Van Dyke starred in several motion picture musicals, including Mary Poppins (a franchise he returned to in the 2018 reboot) and Bye Bye Birdie. After his stunt on The Dick Van Dyke Show, the actor appeared in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Comic, and did some TV work on Columbo, The Carol Burnett Show, and Diagnosis: Murder, in addition to reprising his role in The New Dick Van Dyke Show.
Van Dyke is familiar to younger fans for his work in the 2006 film Curious George and the Night at The Museum movies. The veteran actor said he had the best time working on his self-titled show calling it “the best years of my life.” Van Dyke is 96 years old today but doesn’t dream of leaving show business.
Larry Matthews is also alive
Dick Van Dyke’s character’s son Ritchie, played by Larry Mathews, is also with us. The young star was only 10 years old when the show aired its final episode in 1966. Ritchie was the youngest cast member on the show but shared a birthday with one of his co-stars, Rose Marie, who played one of the writers, Sally Rogers.
Matthews’s character had a habit of inquiring whether his father brought him anything from work every single day. Although the child star appeared in one of the most popular TV shows, he didn’t stick around in the acting industry for long.
According to IMDb, Matthews only has six acting credits, two of which have seen him take on his famous character, Ritchie, in retrospective projects like The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited, which aired in 2004, and TV Therapy which aired in 2021. In the latter, he plays a grown-up Ritchie going to therapy. Matthews turned 67 on Aug. 15, 2022.
Peter Oliphant is also a living member of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’
Although Larry Matthews and Dick Van Dyke are the only main cast members of The Dick Van Dyke Show alive today, one surviving side character is still alive. Peter Oliphant played Freddie Helper, Ritchie Petrie’s best friend and the son of Jerry and Millie Helper.
Oliphant appeared on the show for three episodes and, like Matthews, also didn’t continue acting. His IMDb profile notes that he stopped acting in 1973 and only has 10 acting credits. Today, Oliphant is a video game designer who’s worked on classics like Stonekeep.
