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This Dick Van Dyke trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers a career that runs from a mime act called the Merry Mutes to a Coldplay music video released on his 99th birthday. In between: the Tony for Bye Bye Birdie, five seasons as Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bert and the most-mocked Cockney accent in film history, Caractacus Potts, Dr. Mark Sloan on Diagnosis Murder, and the Daytime Emmy he won at 98. Expect questions on the show's cast and creator, the Emmys and other honours, the roles he took under a scrambled name, his brother Jerry, his idols Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton, and the personal story he has told openly, including his battle with alcohol. Difficulty runs from easy to details only serious fans will know. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
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Q 01Dick Van Dyke was born on December 13, 1925, in which state?
Missouri
West Plains, Missouri, to be exact, though he grew up in Danville, Illinois, where he sang in the high school a cappella choir.
Q 02Van Dyke left high school in his senior year to train as a pilot in which service during World War II?
US Army Air Forces
He ended up building sets, entertaining troops at Majors Army Airfield in Texas and working as a radio announcer.
Q 03In 1947 Van Dyke formed a nightclub comedy duo that mimed and lip-synched to 78 rpm records. What was it called?
The Merry Mutes
Pantomime performer Phil Erickson talked him into it; they billed themselves 'Eric and Van'. The act later got a local TV show in Atlanta.
Q 04Van Dyke won a Tony Award for playing Albert Peterson in the original 1960 production of which musical?
Bye Bye Birdie
He won Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1961 and reprised the role in the 1963 film opposite Ann-Margret and Janet Leigh.
Q 05What was the name of Van Dyke's character on The Dick Van Dyke Show?
Rob Petrie
A comedy writer for the fictional Alan Brady Show, living in New Rochelle with wife Laura, played by 24-year-old Mary Tyler Moore.
Q 06Who created The Dick Van Dyke Show and played the tyrannical star Alan Brady?
Carl Reiner
Reiner had cast himself in the pilot, Head of the Family, but CBS insisted on recasting and he chose Van Dyke to replace him.
Q 07The Dick Van Dyke Show ran on CBS from 1961 to 1966. How many episodes were made?
158
Five seasons of half-hours, shot at Desilu Studios. The series won 15 Emmys.
Q 08In the show's opening sequence, what does Rob sometimes trip over and sometimes step around?
An ottoman
The show varied it from episode to episode, and later sitcoms have paid homage to the gag.
Q 09Where did the Petries live on The Dick Van Dyke Show?
New Rochelle, New York
Reiner based the show on his own years as head writer for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.
Q 10How many Primetime Emmys did Van Dyke win as Outstanding Lead Actor for The Dick Van Dyke Show?
Three
The series itself won four Emmys as Outstanding Comedy Series. His career total stands at six Emmys.
Q 11Which real-life relative of Van Dyke played Rob's sibling Stacey on The Dick Van Dyke Show?
His younger brother Jerry
Jerry Van Dyke later starred in Coach. Barry Van Dyke played Dick's son on Diagnosis Murder decades later.
Q 12Which of these is NOT one of Bert's jobs in Mary Poppins (1964)?
Bus conductor
He is also a one-man band. The role earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
Q 13Whose accent beat Van Dyke's Cockney in Empire's 2003 poll of the worst film accents ever?
Sean Connery in The Untouchables
Q 21In Cold Turkey, Van Dyke's minister leads his Iowa town to do what for 30 days?
Quit smoking
The prize is $25 million from a tobacco company. Shot in 1969, the film was not released until 1971.
Q 22After playing an alcoholic in the 1974 TV movie The Morning After, Dick Van Dyke revealed he had been one for how long?
25 years
The role earned him an Emmy nomination. He has spoken openly about his recovery ever since.
Q 23Which comedian made his prime-time debut on Van Dyke's 1976 sketch series Van Dyke and Company?
Andy Kaufman
The show was cancelled after three months yet still won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety Series.
Connery's Irish-American cop won him an Oscar regardless. Van Dyke has blamed his dialect coach, an Irishman.
Q 14Under what scrambled name was Dick Van Dyke credited as Mr. Dawes Sr. in Mary Poppins?
Navckid Keyd
The letters unscramble to Dick Van Dyke in the closing credits, a trick repeated in Mary Poppins Returns, where he played Dawes Jr.
Q 15Van Dyke's only Grammy came in 1964, shared with Julie Andrews, for what?
The Mary Poppins soundtrack
The film won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Andrews in her feature debut and Best Original Song for 'Chim Chim Cher-ee'.
Q 16Mary Poppins received a record thirteen Academy Award nominations. How many did it win?
Five
Best Actress, Film Editing, Original Music Score, Visual Effects and Original Song. It lost Best Picture to My Fair Lady.
Q 17Whose children's novel was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) based on?
Ian Fleming
The James Bond author wrote it in 1964; Dahl co-wrote the screenplay with director Ken Hughes, and Bond producer Albert Broccoli made it.
Q 18After the Mary Poppins Cockney mockery, how did Van Dyke handle the way Caractacus Potts spoke?
He used his own American accent, at his insistence
The film reunited him with the Sherman Brothers songwriters and choreographers from Mary Poppins. Sally Ann Howes co-starred as Truly Scrumptious.
Q 19In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Baron Bomburst rules which fictional country?
Vulgaria
The Baron tries to steal the car while it is stranded by the tide, and his spies fly off with Grandpa Potts inside his outhouse.
Q 20The 1969 movie The Comic was written especially for Van Dyke, casting him as what?
A self-destructive silent-era comedian
The character struggles with alcoholism and ego, themes that echoed Van Dyke's own life. He has cited Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton as his idols.
Q 24Who played Steve, Dr. Mark Sloan's homicide detective son, on Diagnosis: Murder?
Barry Van Dyke
His real son. The character first appeared on Jake and the Fatman before three TV movies led to the weekly CBS series.
Q 25Dr. Mark Sloan was introduced as a spin-off character from which series?
Jake and the Fatman
He debuted in a fourth-season episode called 'It Never Entered My Mind' before Diagnosis Murder premiered on CBS in October 1993.
Q 26Van Dyke and his son Barry appeared together in a 1987 episode of which action series, on which Barry was the lead?
Airwolf
Barry starred in the show's fourth and final season on USA Network.
Q 27Van Dyke has sung since 2000 with an a cappella group called what?
The Vantastix
His love of a cappella goes back to the choir at Danville High School.
Q 28In 2012, at 86, Van Dyke married make-up artist Arlene Silver. How much younger is she?
46 years
His first marriage, to Margerie Willett in 1948, took place on a radio show called Bride and Groom.
Q 29Van Dyke's first wedding, in 1948, took place where?
On a live radio show
The show was Bride and Groom, broadcast from the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard; the couple got a free honeymoon out of it.
Q 30Which honour did the studio behind Mary Poppins give Van Dyke in 1998?
Disney Legend
He got his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1993 and entered the Television Hall of Fame in 1995.