Dick Van Dyke, 97, is set to guest star as 'a mystery man with amnesia' on ‘Days of Our Lives’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke is all set to make his soap-opera debut as a guest star on an episode of ‘Days of Our Lives’, which will air this fall on Peacock. The 97-year-old ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' actor will portray the role of "a mystery man with amnesia" opposite Deidre Hall and his gym buddy, Drake Hogestyn, who play John Black, in the long-running daytime soap.
Speaking about how the character came to be, Dyke told Access Hollywood, "Drake and I went to the same gym together. I used to kid him, 'Say don't you ever have any parts for old people? Come on, give me a part!' And he took me seriously. He got me a part." The actor added that this will be the first time he "played my 97-year-old self." He said that he had watched just one episode of 'Days of Our Lives' to get a feel for the show's concept and its characters, who had been "doing it for 20 years."
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'We've said something exciting'
"That's about all the homework I could do was watch one and see how they did it. The other thing, you have to hold [a moment] because there's this thing of music and we've said something exciting," Dyke said. First aired in November 1965, ‘Days Of Our Lives’ is set in Salem and follows the trials and tribulations of the Brady, Horton, Carver and DiMera families. In 2022, the long-running soap opera officially moved to Peacock after being aired on NBC since it first released.
On Wednesday, April 19, the ‘Mary Poppins’ star, who has more than 104,000 followers on Instagram, shared a behind-the-scenes video of the creation of his Gnome costume for the ‘The Masked Singer’. He dedicated the special post to his singing coach Amy Chapman, helper Jimmy Staley and "all the behind-the-scenes crew and artisans, who create such a fun and creative show." On February 15, Dyke became the first competitor to be eliminated from Fox's celebrity singing competition's ninth season.
Dick Van Dyke was injured in an accident
Dyke's latest post comes just weeks after he sustained minor injuries when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a gate in Malibu on March 15. The actor was reportedly found in the driving seat of a 2018 Lexus LS 500 with a bleeding nose and mouth. As per reports, he told cops that his car skidded in the rain, and he lost control of it. No alcohol or drugs were found in Dyke's system but officials asked the Department of Motor Vehicles to take his driving retest.