The Only Actors Still Alive From The Cast Of The Dick Van Dyke Show
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" is one of the greatest of all classic sitcoms, an enduring favorite that retains virtually all of its comedic power today that it had when it premiered back in 1955. Unfortunately, that passage of time means that most of its cast and crew have passed on to the great comedy variety show in the sky. Show creator Carl Reiner, who also played arrogant talk show host and annoying boss Alan Brady, died in 2020, and Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, and Richard Deacon have all died as well. But there are a few members of one of the best TV comedy ensembles of them all still with us.
In a sense, all the members of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" cast are still with us in reruns and on streaming platforms, not to mention our precious memories. But in another, more literal sense, the list of main cast members and recurring actors is now down to just three survivors.
Dick Van Dyke is still kicking
Most of the cast might have passed away, but the star of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," comedy legend Dick Van Dyke himself, is still kicking. That's not just a figure of speech, since the veteran performer still has a penchant for his days as a song-and-dance man – you can see him cutting a rug in this recent video from the New York Post.
Van Dyke played people-pleasing comedy writer Rob Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," who never met a jam he couldn't find his way out of in no less than half an hour. But of course, he's arguably even more famous today for his role in the Disney classic "Mary Poppins," the 2018 sequel to which he also appears in. Younger fans may also be familiar with him for his turns in recent children's films like 2006's "Curious George" and the "Night at the Museum" movies.
The legendary comedian had a great time on the show that bore his name. In 2015, he described his time on the show to Closer Weekly as "the best years of my life," a sentiment that's borne out by the creative success of the sitcom.
No matter what you know him from, Dick Van Dyke continuing to bring entertainment and joy into the world is a reason to celebrate.
Larry Mathews, who played young Ritchie Petrie, is also still with us
Only 10 years old at the time of the show's final episode in 1966, Larry Mathews was much younger than his fellow "Dick Van Dyke Show" co-stars (one of whom, Rose Marie, shared his August 15th birthday, according to Boston.com). That, of course, is because he played young Ritchie Petrie on the show, Rob Petrie's young son with a habit of asking his dad "did you bring me anything?" whenever he got home from work.
Mathews starred in one of the most popular television shows of all time, but he didn't stay in the acting business after it ended. In fact, his IMDb credits show only a handful of credits after the end of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," two of which have him reprising his famous character in retrospective projects like 2004's "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited." You can also see him playing a grown-up Ritchie Petrie in therapy on the YouTube web series "TV Therapy." Evidently, his time as the youngest Petrie was as pleasant off-screen as it is on. As the actor told Parade in 2014, "It was always a fun place to be. It felt like you were at home in a family."
Peter Oliphant appeared as neighbor kid Freddie Helper
That covers the main cast of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but there's actually one more performer from the show who's still with us. Peter Oliphant, who played neighbor Freddie Helper in three episodes of the sitcom, didn't stick to acting after 1973 (via IMDb), but his small part in one of the most famous sitcoms ever made is still something he gets asked about occasionally in his adult job as a video game designer, like in this episode of the Matt Chat series hosted by Matt Barton.
Unfortunately, Oliphant's experience on the show doesn't seem to have been quite as personally fulfilling as Larry Mathews' was. "When you're on the show, everyone's friendly, everyone's nice, but I don't think I even went out to eat with Ritchie on the show," he admitted, seemingly suggesting that he wasn't too close off-screen to his on-screen friend. "It's not like afterwards I made friends with Dick Van Dyke and we'd hang out," Oliphant went on to say.
Oliphant's claim to fame was as the son of Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert) on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but as he shared in the above interview, he's since distinguished himself as a figure in the early history of video games, having worked on 1990s classics like "Stonekeep" as well as handheld games from Mattel.
If reflecting on your own mortality by way of the mortality of the cast of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" has got you down, consider watching an episode or two now -– a sure way to cheer almost anyone up.