All About Barry Van Dyke, Dick Van Dyke's Son and Former Costar

He may have a very famous father in Dick Van Dyke, but Barry Van Dyke made his own Hollywood career.

Son of Dick Van Dyke show star appeared in cult shows like Wonder Woman, The A-Team, Mork & Mindy and Galactica 1980, and acted with his dad on Diagnosis Murder for eight seasons.

Dick, star of movies like Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it threatened a great deal in the lives of a generation of children. The unique energy and animated performances he brought to his roles, Barry said, were similar to how the actor was at home. “He was a great father,” Barry said on the show Born famous 1987. “He was a child in a human body and he was in tune with us all the time. … He gave me great things: How to make the right decisions, how to be yourself. These things meant enough to me that I gladly and proudly passed them on to my children.”

Now a grandfather, Barry is still acting – and still looks up to his 98-year-old father. “I’d work with him anytime,” Barry said in 1987.[Dick is] best for work, very creative. … He left a good example.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Dick Van Dyke’s son, Barry Van Dyke.

He is the second of four children

Dick Van Dyke with his wife Margie Willet, posing in front of the fireplace with their four children: Barry, Carrie, Chris and Stacey. Van Dyke and Willet sit on a coffee table with their children standing behind them. Hulton Archive/Getty

Dick and then-wife Margie Willett married in 1948 and had four children together. Son Christian was born on May 13, 1950 and is an attorney living in Oregon. Barry was born on July 31, 1951. Daughter Stacy, an actress who also appeared on Diagnosis Murder, she was born in 1955. The youngest daughter, Carrie Beth, was born on October 18, 1961 and has mostly lived out of the limelight.

“They all turned out great, I’m glad to say,” said Dick USA Today 2011. “Not a horse thief in the group.”

He grew up in Los Angeles

Barry Van Dyke and Dick Van Dyke attend the opening night performance of ‘The Will Rogers Follies’ on July 1, 1993.

Vinnie Zuffante/Getty

When he was 9, the family moved to Los Angeles so that Dick could act The Dick Van Dyke Show. Even though his father was a big celebrity, Barry said Los Angeles Times 1994 that he never felt like his father was a star.

“My father didn’t travel in those circles,” he said. “We knew he was on TV and he watched the show and we knew it was successful, but we didn’t hang out with a lot of showbiz guys.”

He and his wife were high school sweethearts

Barry Van Dyke and Mary Carey Van Dyke at the 8th Annual American Comedy Awards on March 6, 1994.

Barry King/Alamy

When they were both 16, Barry met Mary Carey while working as a ticket seller at a movie theater in Arizona, according to Los Angeles Times. They married at 23 and have four children: Carey, Shane, Wes and Taryn.

Now Barry and Mary are grandparents. Carey has several children, including daughters Ava, Gracie and Jane; Shane has a son, Kayden; and Wes has a daughter, Kyla Mae, and a son, Conor.

On Father’s Day 2023, Dick posted a photo on Instagram of him and his wife, Arlene, surrounded by family members. “When I first had kids, I never realized what I started,” he wrote alongside the photo. “But I’m amazed and grateful to have lived long enough to spend Father’s Day with some of my children, grandchildren AND great-grandchildren!! All wonderful, non-toxic people!! And to share it all with my greatest gift @bijoubox in our magical fairy land @vandymanor I’m a very lucky boy!! @wesvandyke_fineart.”

He had his first television appearance in his father’s most famous show

Dick Van Dyke as Dick Burgess and Barry Van Dyke as Matt Burgess in ‘The Van Dyke Show’.

CBS/Getty

Barry made his television debut The Dick Van Dyke Show when he was 9 years old — and the role was not too demanding for the young actor, who saw on the screen the same dad he saw in real life.

“He he was Rob Petrie at home,” said Barry USA Today 2011 “That’s really him. He’s always played himself. His fans feel like they know him because that’s the real Dick Van Dyke you see on screen.”

While appearing on television at a very young age, Barry says his father discouraged him from pursuing an acting career at that age.

“He wanted me to have my own childhood. He told me that if I still wanted to act after I graduated from high school, then that would be fine,” he told Los Angeles Times in 1994.

He made his way in Hollywood

Dick Van Dyke as Dick Burgess and Barry Van Dyke as Matt Burgess in ‘The Van Dyke Show’.

CBS/Getty

While Barry admits his famous father’s name opened doors for him, he doesn’t believe it gained him any credibility in show business. “There’s too much at stake for producers and casting directors to throw you in with just a name,” he told za Los Angeles Times. “You either perform or you don’t. You work or you don’t.”

Dick, however, has a slightly different take on the idea of ​​putting his family on his shows. In his opinion, the more the merrier when it comes to employing family members. “It’s one way to see your grown children,” Dick told CNN in 1998. “Barry’s teenage sons were on the show, and I had my daughter Stacy on the show as well. It’s nepotism at its peak!”

He appeared in very famous television shows

Jayden Mound and Barry Van Dyke in ‘The Untold Story’.

Ammunition Contents /Courtesy of Everett

After Barry began his acting career, he quickly landed guest roles on some of the most beloved and influential series of the 1970s and 1980s, including Murder She Wrote, Full House, Wonder Woman, The A-Team, Mork & Mindy and Magnum PI

In 1980, he got a role on Galactica 1980, the last season of the original Battlestar Galactica, and then appeared for one season in another 1980s sci-fi series, air wolf, as well as a series of TV movies.

Barry’s most recent roles were in two 2019 films: An untold story and Heavenly deposit.

His biggest roles were acting alongside his father

Dick Van Dyke and Barry Van Dyke in the movie ‘Love and War’.

Snap/Shutterstock

Dick came out of retirement for Diagnosis Murder, which debuted in 1993. In the series, Barry played Steve Sloan, a police detective, and Dick played Dr. Mark Sloan, a doctor who advises on his son’s cases and helps solve murders. “The opportunity to work with Barry was one of my main reasons for doing it,” Dick told PEOPLE in 1998.

“Dad is a reluctant TV star,” Barry added. “He was retired several times. [But] they keep pulling him into new projects.”

Audiences responded to the duo’s on-screen dynamic, and the series ran for 178 episodes and inspired five television movies featuring both Van Dykes. “It’s easy for me to fall into that role,” Barry said Los Angeles Times 1994 “My dad mostly plays himself. You see the real him. All that warmth and humanity really comes through. So I usually play myself. So their relationship is mostly ours.”

After Diagnosis Murder ended in 2002, Dick and Barry—along with Barry’s son Shane—appeared in the short-lived Murder 101 in 2006.

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Source: HIS Education