Dick Van Dyke, 97, shows of his injuries after he 'FACE PLANTED' into steering wheel in car accident
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: After the horrifying accident where Hollywood icon Dick Van Dyke, 97, crashed his Lexus LS 500 in a gate and split his lips, the ‘Mary Poppins’ star made his first public appearance on Friday.
In an exclusive video taken by Daily Mail, the actor and performer revealed how he was feeling post the accident that led to him getting two stiches.
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The Disney legend told Daily Mail on Friday, “I’m fine, just sore all over,” on being asked how his recovery was going. “The airbag did not deploy, so I just did a face plant right into the steering wheel and it just made me a little dumber," he added.
The Daytime and Primetime Emmy winning actor further remarked, “I’m 97, all my friends are dead”. The Grammy winning nonagenarian also thanked her wife Arlene Silver, 51, for taking care of him and said “without her” he would “probably be dead”.
Six years after they first met at the SAG Awards, the makeup artist married the ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ star in 2012. The couple went for a drive through the city where Silver wore a quilted vest over a red-and-black striped blouse along with a turquoise handbag. ‘The Comic’ actor, meanwhile, was dressed in a camouflage-print pair of pants, a navy and white long-sleeve shirt, and black sneakers.
According to reports, the ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ alum skidded in the downpour and lost control of his car. Paramedics attended to Van Dyke at the site as he had a bloody mouth, nose, and possibly a concussion. He wasn't taken to the hospital; rather, an acquaintance picked him up and drove him home.
A lucky escape in 2013
Before he was involved in the Malibu accident, in 2013, the Hollywood ‘Walk of Famer’, then 87, was involved in another accident. On August 19, 2013, a bystander helped the veteran actor escape his burning sports vehicle after it caught fire on a motorway in California. Jason Pennington, who saved Van Dyke, claimed to have seen a smoke-filled Jaguar pull over to the side of the road while he was traveling down Route 101 in Calabasas. Van Dyke was reportedly attempting to escape from inside.
As fire tore through the car's engine, Pennington, assisted by two off-duty nurses, quickly opened the driver door and removed the 'Mary Poppins' star. After his wife Arlene arrived on the scene to pick him up, Van Dyke was reported to recover well at home without the need for medical care. After the accident, Van Dyke tweeted jokingly in 2013, "My "rescue" was like the Boy Scout who helped the old lady across the street, who didn't want to cross the street!!".
My "rescue" was like the Boy Scout who helped the old lady across the street, who didn't want to cross the street!!
— Dick Van Dyke (@iammrvandy) August 21, 2013
‘Keep Moving’
“I’ve always been an exerciser and still am … I get in the pool and exercise. At my age, they say to keep moving. Put me on solid ground and I’ll start tapping,” the veteran actor said in 2019, as reported by New York Post. Apart from attributing his “good genes” to be the secret of his fitness, the nonagenarian further revealed that he used to go to the gym thrice a week and loves to do water aerobics, weight lifting and walking on a treadmill. He also credited his wife for keeping him fit and happy. “I sometimes forget that we’re doing a great experiment here — 46 years’ difference. And we work at it to some extent,” he said, before adding, “There’s got to be some understanding. Find out what old habits don’t work anymore. It takes some adjusting and fitting in, but that’s part of the fun of it.”