Dick Van Dyke to receive SAG career award
- Published
Van Dyke is the "consummate entertainer" across stage and screen
Veteran entertainer Dick Van Dyke is to be honoured with a life achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards next January.
The Missouri-born actor, singer, writer and comedian famously played cockney chimney sweep Bert in Mary Poppins.
He also starred in 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show and cult 1980s TV series Diagnosis: Murder.
SAG gives its highest honour to an actor it feels fosters the "finest ideals of the acting profession".
During a career spanning six decades, 86-year-old Van Dyke has been awarded five Emmys, a Tony Award and a Grammy.
"Dick is the consummate entertainer, an enormously talented performer whose work has crossed nearly every major category of entertainment," said SAG's Ken Howard.
He continued: "He sets a high bar for actors. Stage, big screen, small screen, literally everywhere he has worked he has inspired millions of fans and has had a tremendously positive impact on the industry and the world."
Van Dyke made his Broadway debut in 1959 and a year later was cast in Bye Bye Birdie, earning a Tony Award and going on to star in the film version.
He featured in 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke show opposite Mary Tyler Moore for five seasons, winning three lead actor Emmys.
In 1964, he filmed Disney's musical classic Mary Poppins opposite Julie Andrews, which won five Oscars and earned the pair a Grammy.
Other film credits include Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang, Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy in 1990 and more recently Ben Stiller comedy Night at the Museum and animated feature Curious George.
Van Dyke presented both leading ladies Mary Tyler Moore and Julie Andrews with their own Life Achievement Awards
One of Van Dyke's most memorable roles, held for nearly a decade, was as crime-solving physician Dr Mark Sloan in hit 1990s TV show Diagnosis: Murder.
It co-starred his son Barry as a police detective.
In 2003, Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore re-teamed to portray lonely seniors in Pulitzer Prize-winning drama The Gin Game and he presented Moore with her own SAG Life Achievement Award earlier this year.
Van Dyke still performs regularly as part of music group The Vantastix and released an album of children's songs, Put on A Happy Face.
The Life Achievement Award honours both career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment.
Van Dyke supports several charities and has volunteered at Los Angeles homeless shelter The Midnight Mission for nearly twenty years.
The 19th Annual SAG Awards ceremony will take place on 27 January during Hollywood's awards season.