At 99, Dick Van Dyke is truly a Hollywood legend. And you know what they say, behind every good man is a great woman. For this actor in particular, it’s his wife of 13 years, Arlene Silver. Below, we dive deep into their super sweet love story and discover details on how life really looks for the two of them, not the least of which is that they are great-grandparents!
A look at the love story between Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver
Van Dyke and Silver first met at the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards. From there, they met and fell in love, despite the 46-year age difference. In fact, Van Dyke loved her so much that he even hired her as a makeup artist on his films.
“I knew him, I just didn’t know how I knew him,” Silver said of their first meeting, per People. “I like that I knew him as a man before I knew him as a performer.”
The couple got married in 2012 and has been together ever since.
“She is the best wife. She’s made me the happiest man in the world. Our life is so good together,” the actor told Malibu Times in 2022. “Mostly we sing and dance together.”
Silver added onto that, saying, “I’ve learned so many songs with Dick. Countless. He loves to sing all the time, and since we can’t always have a band here or the Vantastix, I always want to keep him singing.”
Arlene Silver and Dick Van Dyke in 2012
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage/Getty
The two currently don’t have any children together; however, Van Dyke did have four kids—Barry, Stacy, Carrie Beth and Christian—with his ex-wife, Margie Willett, making Silver a stepmom.
“My grandkids call her Grandma. My four kids just love her,” Van Dyke said in 2012, per People.
Speaking of past relationships, Van Dyke did say that Silver helped him get over the death of his longtime partner, Michelle Triola, who passed away in 2009 from cancer.
“Arlene would come by after work and bring me food,” Van Dyke said. “She was such a support, I fell in love.”
A look inside Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver’s life as great-grandparents
Like so many others, Van Dyke’s family is full of children, in-laws, grandkids and even great grandkids—which, according to him, is exactly how he likes it.
“I love it. They call me crazy grandpa! I have four kids, seven grandkids, and four great-grandkids. Maybe I can become a great-great-grandfather if I hang on,” he told Parade in 2013.
And crazy he is, because to celebrate his 99th birthday last year, Van Dyke appeared alongside Silver and the rest of his family in a music video for Coldplay’s song “All My Love.”
Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver in 2012
Monica Schipper/Getty
“I think I’m one of those lucky people who got to do for a living what I would’ve done anyway. When you think how lucky I am—I got to do what I do, play and act silly,” the actor said in the video. “I’m acutely aware that I could go any day now. But I don’t know why, it doesn’t concern me. I’m not afraid of it. I have that feeling totally against anything intellectual that I’m gonna be alright.”
Also in the video, Van Dyke sang his own little song, which went, “Old age, old age, old age, old age. You turn another page. All the love that I’ve been feeling. All the breakin’, all the healin’. All the things that I wish I’d done are right. All the days that I was dancing, all the chances I was dancin’. But I’m still legendary Dick Van Dyke.”
How sweet is that!
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