Computer Animator and Amiga fanatic Dick Van Dyke turns 100

188 pointsposted 11 hours ago
by ggm

Item id: 46252993

46 Comments

tzs

6 hours ago

Here’s a great quote by him:

> In my 30’s, I exercised to look good. In my 50’s, to stay fit. In my 70’s, to stay ambulatory. In my 80’s, to avoid assisted living. Now in my 90’s, I’m just doing it out of pure defiance

SoftTalker

2 hours ago

He was also an alcoholic for many years. Must be made of pretty good stuff to survive this long.

moron4hire

an hour ago

Of all of my grandparents and great grandparents, they all lived really hard lives eating high fat diets, drinking and smoking, and lived into their 80s. Genetics is really the biggest determining factor outside of going completely off the rails with binge eating and drug use.

Now, that's not to say that healthy living is pointless. Their quality of life from late 60s on was not great: alcoholism, poverty, multiple heart attacks, emphasima, a stroke here and there, from which they eventually, sort of, not really recovered. They were deeply unhappy people who never really seemed to have time or care for their families. I definitely don't want to live like that. So treat yourself right, but not because you're trying to reach a certain age.

mrandish

an hour ago

> Genetics is really the biggest determining factor outside of going completely off the rails with binge eating and drug use.

So true. I'm fortunate that both my parents have long-life family histories. Both families were old-fashioned Southern Baptists who didn't drink, smoke, dance or, apparently, believe in having fun of any kind :-). But that just kept them from messing up their good genetic luck. I'm an old-fashioned atheist but have chosen to never drink, smoke or do drugs just because I never saw a compelling reason to. Now I'm pushing 60 and have so far had zero serious health issues. Hoping to keep a good thing going.

robotresearcher

29 minutes ago

Beware survivor bias.

In a population of equally vulnerable genetics and stochastic outcomes, there will be families that all live long.

We are wired to attribute that to something.

austinjp

7 hours ago

Seemingly a universally liked man. So much so, that dolphins rescued him when he fell asleep on his surfboard aged 84.

https://archive.is/pZTz3

thefaux

3 hours ago

The intelligence and benevolence of many marine mammals is vastly under appreciated.

spankibalt

3 hours ago

Reportedly, dolphins are notorious rapists. So maybe there's more to this story...

yetihehe

2 hours ago

Maybe intelligent species have a lot of variance? There are good and bad dolphins, like there are good and bad people.

agumonkey

4 hours ago

When nature is on your side you now you have it good

linsomniac

3 hours ago

A few months ago I found The Dick Van Dyke Show free to watch on Youtube. I had seen a number of the episodes in passing over the years, but never really watched it. It's really quite a good show. Highly recommended, even if YouTube's viewing experience for TV series is sub-par.

mrandish

an hour ago

Some of those older comedy shows had really good writing. The Bob Newhart shows were also excellent.

tronicjester

31 minutes ago

Bob Newhart was Mr. Rogers for adults. Good show!

gbraad

7 hours ago

THE Dick van Dyke, from Mary Poppins, Diagnosis: Murder, ans so many more?! I always thought it was just a coincidental same name as I never saw videos about this. Oh my! This guy is amazing

ChrisMarshallNY

6 hours ago

Very much so. Really decent chap, too.

Terrible cockney accent, though...

wingmanjd

3 hours ago

No one mentioned it to him during production, so he didn't know.

stavros

9 hours ago

I had no idea he's an animator, that's so cool! In that video he says "Lightwave is so deep, I won't live long enough to see everything that's in it". I'm glad he's proven wrong there!

kristopolous

6 hours ago

I know his son Barry. He said his first memory he has was his Dad doing real time drawings for people telling stories. He was behind the story teller on stage on giant pads of paper as a comedy bit at night clubs.

He also remembers having giant bags of toys dumped on the floor of the hotel rooms.

ChrisMarshallNY

5 hours ago

Many A-listers are polymaths. For example, Phil Hartman, used to be Phil Hartmann (extra "n"), and designed some of the most iconic album covers of the 1970s, and Steve Martin is one of the best banjo players out there. It used to be part of his standup bit.

Dick Van Dyke came from the tail end of Vaudeville, where performers had to have a whole variety of skills.

Remember: Every one of these folks that hits the limelight, beat out thousands of others.

We think our vocation is competitive? Showbiz says "Hold my beer."

ndstephens

4 hours ago

Just looked it up and saw he did an album cover for Steely Dan. It reminded me that Chevy Chase was an early drummer for Steely Dan (well, before they became "Steely Dan")

pstuart

28 minutes ago

The album: Aja -- a masterpiece.

trehalose

3 hours ago

Hedy Lamarr was a prolific inventor. Among other things, she developed a frequency-hopping spread spectrum radio transmission technique for torpedo guidance and donated the patent to the US Navy during WW2.

ChrisMarshallNY

an hour ago

That's "Headley!" (Blazing Saddles reference).

And of course, there's Sir Doctor Brian May.

Many of the early electronic musicians were basically engineers (you had to be, to use some of those old synthesizers).

martinesq

4 hours ago

> Steve Martin is one of the best banjo players out there

And he’s great with a lasso!

I love his albums with Edie Brickell, he’s good with Steep Canyon Rangers, and more recently have heard him shine with Alison Brown (banjo), Sierra Hull (mandolin), and others in his latest tour.

If you’re looking for the top banjo players technically, you might check out Béla Fleck, Jens Kruger, Noam Pikelny, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Don Reno, and Earl Scruggs. I’ve personally heard superhuman performances by Jens Kruger in-person and I grew up on Scruggs.

kstrauser

3 hours ago

I have a fond memory of my dad taking me to see Roy Clark when I was a little guy.

dboreham

4 hours ago

For completeness: Billy Connolly was also a banjo player.

Keyframe

4 hours ago

He even outlived Ligtwave!

gsf_emergency_6

10 hours ago

bestouff

8 hours ago

> The beloved actor credits his remarkable longevity to his positive outlook and never getting angry.

Tade0

6 hours ago

Makes sense. My grandpa is one year his junior and you would never see him react too strongly to anything, even though grandma (also still alive) always had an, ahem, fiery personality.

Also he refuses to sit and moves around all the time, venturing outside every day from their apartment four floors above ground without a lift.

Interestingly his own father didn't make it to his 60s, so there's certainly a lifestyle component to this.

wuhhh

10 hours ago

Wow I had no idea, what a cool guy! Loved Mary Poppins as a kid, his British accent though… xD

Instantix

5 hours ago

And then Commodore made the A3000 not high enough to take the Video Toaster. How to shoot yourself in the foot...

qoez

4 hours ago

Amazing that he was 80 in that clip

thrill

2 hours ago

“How an elephant got in my pajamas I’ll never know.”

cafard

5 hours ago

Props to ggm for finding a tech angle.

sgt

11 hours ago

Such a legend! I bet he still has his Amiga somewhere in his Hollywood hills mansion.

ggm

11 hours ago

For Mary Poppins, Disney used the sodium vapour process to get monochromatic light into a narrow channel for matte from a light splitting prism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_vapor_process

It's charming. I'm sure digital post offers many advantages. Van Dyke might be one of a few who has done both.

reactordev

7 hours ago

Kind of a tangent comment

metadope

5 hours ago

Tangents are a sine of the times.

timbit42

2 hours ago

He sold his Amiga not too many years ago. It may have been on eBay.