Dick Van Dyke: 'I'm sore all over' after Malibu auto accident
Dick Van Dyke says he's doing better after his single-car crash in Malibu, Calif., on March 15. Credit: Getty Images / Paul Morigi
Dick Van Dyke is assuring that despite some soreness and a couple of stitches, he feels fine after his single-vehicle auto accident on a rain-slicked California street on March 15.
Speaking to a TMZ.com videographer in a Los Angeles parking garage, exiting a car along with wife Arlene Silver Van Dyke and an unidentified woman in a video posted Sunday, the 97-year-old comedy icon appears in good spirits and good humor when asked how he is doing.
"Pretty good," he answers. "I'm sore all over. The air bag did not deploy," he notes, "so I just did a face plant right in the steering wheel. And I have two stitches here," he adds, pointing to his lower face. "Other than that, it just made me a little dumber," he jokes.
As Van Dyke walks away with the others, the videographer says the star looks fine, all things considered. "Yeah, I'm doing OK," the Television Academy Hall of Famer and four-time Emmy Award winner replies, quipping, "I’m 97 — all my friends are dead.”
And when asked jocularly if his 51-year-old wife, whom he married in 2012, was taking good care of him, Van Dyke says with a serious demeanor, "Without her I would probably be dead."
The "Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Diagnosis: Murder" star, whose accolades also include a Tony and a Grammy Award, was driving a 2018 Lexus LS 500 in Malibu, California, when he lost control and crashed into a gate. TMZ, which first reported the accident, said deputies found him bleeding from the nose and mouth, with a possible concussion.
He declined hospitalization and paramedics treated him at the scene. Police determined no drugs or alcohol were involved. While early reports said law enforcement had filed paperwork with the DMV requesting Van Dyke retake his driver's-license test, the Los Angeles Times said Monday that a police spokesperson was unaware of any such paperwork. The DMV declined to comment.
In April 2013, a Jaguar Van Dyke was driving began smoking from the engine and caught fire after he subsequently parked it on the side of a Los Angeles freeway. He was unhurt in that incident.
