Legendary entertainer Dick Van Dyke will celebrate his 100th birthday in December, and he is still the life of the party. His wife, Arlene Van Dyke, recently celebrated her birthday and her husband gave her a wonderful surprise that delighted her.
Van Dyke, who starred in Hallmark’s “Murder 101” movie series, broke out in song at his wife’s birthday celebration. The sweet moments were captured on video and shared on Instagram by Trevor Perez, who has been a videographer for the entertainer for nearly a decade.
The video that Perez shared on September 28 showed Van Dyke singing to his wife. The sweet moment happened on Setpember 21 during a birthday party for her held at Aviator Nation Dreamland, located in Malibu, California.
The video also included Van Dyke sharing the story of how he and his wife first met. He noted that his 100th birthday was coming up, and he said he’d “never seen a more beautiful woman in my life than this one.”
Van Dyke shared, “I’ve never walked up to a strange woman in my life! And I was backstage [at the SAG Awards] just waiting to go on. She walked by, without even thinking, I jumped up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick!'”
He discovered that she as a makeup artist and he hired her. “Now we’ve been married 13 years and I couldn’t be happier. Happy birthday sweetheart,” Van Dyke gushed.
Fans Adored the Hallmark Alum’s Singing & Storytelling
The video received hundreds of comments and over 30,000 “likes” on Instagram.
One fan raved, “I love that he still has his recognisable singing voice at nearly 100, he’s incredible! Happy Birthday to Arlene!”
“He is a true treasure. It is impossible not to love this man,” another fan commented.
Someone else added, “Aw, Happy Birthday Arlene! Keep making each other smile every day!”
An additional comment read, “She’s kept him young! He is a national treasure!”
Another fan gushed, “Happy Birthday Arlene!! Thanks for taking care of our National Treasure!! You’re the GOAT!!”
In October 2013, she talked with the Huffington Post about meeting Van Dyke. “He’s the perfect human being but he’s also the perfect partner,” she shared.
In recalling how they met, she noted she had been a makeup artist for the SAG Awards, where they met, for five years.
When she walked back to the green room to watch the show, “I remember seeing Dick at the catering table with his bow tie and his big smile. Right when I sat down, he was sitting next to me.”
Before meeting her future husband, she “was not familiar with all his work.” In fact, she admitted, she had never even seen Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins.”
After that initial meeting, Van Dyke hired her to be his makeup artist on “a couple of his Hallmark movies,” she recalled. A couple of months had gone by since their initial meeting, and she explained, “we got along immediately as friends, so it didn’t feel like he was so much older than me.”
“Dick is like no one I’ve ever known,” she told the Huffington Post.
