Dick Van Dyke Looks Back on His Iconic Career as He Turns 98: ‘My Whole Life Went Before Me’ (Exclusive)

When Dick Van Dyke recently walked into Television City, the CBS-owned TV studio in Los Angeles, he thought he was simply there for another press interview.

But one of the biggest surprises in life awaited the acting legend: filming a movie Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic, a brilliant two-hour CBS tribute special featuring archival footage and live performances of songs from Van Dyke’s distinguished, decades-long career.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Van Dyke, who turns 98 on Wednesday, admitted that watching the event was surreal.

“You think, ‘I don’t deserve this,’ but it’s hard to say how I felt,” he says. “I came home and said, ‘You know what? It’s going to be a few days before this really sinks in that it happened.’ I never expected such recognition. My whole life was ahead of me. I didn’t know I had done so many things in my 75 years in show business.”

Dick Van Dyke will celebrate his birthday with 98 years of magic Special on CBS

One of the many song and dance numbers from ‘Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic’.

Monty Brinton/CBS

For the Emmy, Grammy and SAG award-winning entertainer, watching the perfectly recreated songs and dance numbers of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s “Me Ol’ Bamboo” were among the highlights. “I was just blown away,” he says.

Born in West Plains, Missouri on December 13, 1925 and raised in Danville, Illinois, Van Dyke began working in radio and on Broadway before landing Carl Reiner The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran from 1961 to 1966, and starred Mary Tyler Moore as his wife. The sitcom catapulted Van Dyke and Moore to stardom and earned them Emmys in the process.

Dick Van Dyke steps out to attend an exhibition of a series of portraits documenting his life

Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke with their 1966 Emmy Awards for their performances on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.’ Getty

While shooting The Dick Van Dyke Showjoined Julie Andrews, Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber in the now classic Walt Disney Pictures film Mary Poppins. The 1964 film “was special,” he told PEOPLE in 2011. “I loved working with the kids. You get to clown around a lot and get to know them.”

The film was followed by a series of film roles including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Dick Tracy, as well as TV parts. From 1993 to 2001, he played Dr. Mark Sloan, a teacher doctor who solves crimes in his spare time, on the CBS crime drama Diagnosis: Murder.

Dick Van Dyke’s life in photos

Dick Van Dyke in ‘Mary Poppins’ alongside Julie Andrews, Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber. Photo (c) Silver Screen Collections / Getty Images

In the years that followed, Van Dyke appeared in 2006 Night in the museum and in 2018 Mary Poppins Returns – and the actor still remains employed. Only this year he appeared in Days of our lives like an amnesiac, Masked singer like Gnome and The Simpsons like himself.

While Van Dyke proved to be a prolific entertainer, he also found time for a successful personal life. He had four children – Christian, Barry, Stacy and Carrie Beth – with his late ex-wife Margerie Willett, to whom he was married for 36 years. In 2012, he married Arlene Silver, a makeup artist, after meeting her at the SAG Awards six years earlier.

Dick Van Dyke’s Four Children: Everything You Need to Know

“I just went up and said, ‘Hi, I’m Dick.’ I don’t know how I got the courage,” he recalls. “Anyway, we ended up married. She sings like an angel. She dances and we do the whole point together. We do duets and stuff. She’s the best partner I’ve ever met. What it’s a pleasure.”

Dick Van Dyke and wife Arlene Silver in Beverly Hills, California in October 2017. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Van Dyke plans to spend his actual birthday on Wednesday in low-key style, surrounded by a few of his grandchildren — “I don’t really like too much tradition, I guess,” he explains — but the entertainer admits he finds joy and gratitude “every day of my life.”

“My wife brings me a cup of coffee in the morning. I get it in bed. They treat me like a king here,” he says, referring to his home in Southern California.

If there’s perhaps one rare “sad moment” in Van Dyke right now, it’s the quiet challenge many minors face: the entertainer outlives many of his friends, including Norman Lear, who recently passed away at age 101 on December 5 . .

Dick Van Dyke and Jane Seymour stepped out for ‘fun and scares’ on Halloween this year.

Jane Seymour / Instagram

Dick Van Dyke learns the ukulele in a new video: ‘It’s never too late to start something new’

“I had a bunch of friends there who could say nice things, but Mary Tyler Moore, Morey [Amsterdam] and Rosie [Rose Marie]Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, all the people I’ve always loved and hung out with are gone, so I have to make new friends,” he admits.

Fortunately, the acting legend doesn’t have to go far for that.

“I’m happy to say that people come to me,” he adds. “I don’t have to go looking.”

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Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic premieres Thursday, December 21 at 9:00 PM ET on CBS.

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Source: HIS Education