Dick Van Dyke's Eventful Birthday Month: At 99, 'I'm Not Afraid Of' Death

MALIBU, CA — Dick Van Dyke has had an eventful month.

After starring in a Coldplay music video, he got separated from his cat when he had to flee his Malibu home in the wake of a destructive wildfire. Van Dyke, his wife, their cat and their home are all safe as the legendary entertainer turned 99 years old on Friday.

“I’m acutely aware that I’m, you know, could go any day now but I don’t know why it doesn’t concern me,” Van Dyke says in the Coldplay video. “I’m not afraid of it. I have that feeling, totally against anything intellectual, that I’m going to be all right.”

Van Dyke adds that he's been lucky to be able to "play and act silly" for a living, which he continues to do in the "All My Love" video. In the clip — which introduces Van Dyke with his 1925 birth day — he pokes fun at his age, joking about naps before skillfully breaking out into some of his old physical comedy bits and dancing without shoes on.

Watch the "All My Love" video

The video, directed by Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore, includes images from Van Dyke's personal life and from his long career. There's a photo of him and Mary Tyler Moore, his "Dick Van Dyke Show" costar. And shots of memorabilia from "Mary Poppins," in which he played one of his most memorable roles, the charismatic cockney musician/artist/chimney sweep/kite seller, Bert.

Van Dyke was among the residents who were ordered to evacuate after the Franklin Fire broke out in Malibu Monday night. Flames spread so quickly in his neighborhood, Serra Retreat, that Van Dyke and his wife, Arlene Silver, lost their cat, Bobo, during the frantic evacuation.

“Arlene and I have safely evacuated with our animals except for Bobo escaped as we were leaving," Van Dyke wrote on a Facebook post.

By Thursday morning as firefighters gained an upper hand on the fire, Van Dyke and Silver were allowed back into their home. Bobo was there waiting for them when they returned.

"There was so much interest in his disappearance that Animal Control was called in to assist," Van Dyke wrote on Facebook. "But, thankfully he was easy to find and not harmed."

Van Dyke has continued to work well into his 90s. He appeared last year on "The Masked Singer," becoming the oldest contestant to appear on the Fox show.

He starred on CBS' "The Dick Van Dyke Show" from 1961 to 1966. "Bye Bye Birdie" launched his movie career in 1963, followed by the hit musicals "Mary Poppins" (1964) and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968).

In 2018, Van Dyke, who has won four Emmys and one Grammy, made a dancing cameo in "Mary Poppins Returns."