December 13, 1925: Emmy Award-winning actor Dick Van Dyke, best known to Disney fans as Bert the Cockney chimney sweep in the 1964 musical feature Mary Poppins, is born in West Plains, Missouri. He hosted such TV specials as Florida's Disney Decade (1981), Donald Duck's 50th Birthday (1984), and Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (2001). Van Dyke's Disney credits also include the features Dick Tracy, Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N., and Never a Dull Moment. He has also taken part in Disneyland's annual Christmas Candlelight Procession - in particular Disneyland's 1965 version ... the last Candlelight ceremony that Walt Disney himself attended. (With a career spanning 6 decades, fans know Van Dyke as Rob Petrie from the 1960's TV comedy series The Dick Van Dyke Show, Caractacus Potts in the 1968 feature film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and as Dr. Mark Sloan on the television series Diagnosis Murder.) A fan of barber shop quartets, Van Dyke has his own singing group The Vantastix, who performed at the 2011 D23 Expo.
"Mickey was my first introduction to humor and comedy. Mickey's character was always visually funny to me. He was the good guy." -Dick Van Dyke
“I thought he (Walt Disney) hired me because I was such a great singer and dancer. As it turns out, he had heard me in an interview talking about what was happening to family entertainment. I was decrying the fact that it seemed like no holds were barred anymore in entertainment. … He knew about the “Van Dyke Show,” about our little sitcom, but that’s why he called me in, because I said something he agreed with. And I got the part.” - Dick Van Dyke on how he got the role of Bert in Mary Poppins
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