Categories: Celebrity News

Dick Van Dyke, 99, skips out on comedy event due to illness

Dick Van Dyke missed a comedy event Saturday due to an undisclosed illness.

The 99-year-old actor was set to host Vandy Camp at Malibu High School, but never showed. His wife, Arlene Silver, hosted alone instead. She told the crowd she was “not the Van Dyke you’re expecting,” according to People magazine.

“I have to inform you that Dick is not up to coming to celebrate with us today. I’m sorry.”

“When you’re 99 and a half years old, you have good days and bad days… and unfortunately, today is not a good day for him, and he’s sick that he can’t be here,” she continued.

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 Dick Van Dyke missed Vandy Camp due to an illness. (Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

Van Dyke attended the comedy event via a livestream and Silver promised fans the comedian would be at the next Vandy Camp “in person.”

Vandy Camp featured multiple performances, games and a Q and A session.

Silver also spoke about Van Dyke’s love of the fundraising event, telling the audience it’s about more than “just Dick Van Dyke.”

“It is a celebration of your childhood, all of our childhoods, the music that’s in the fabric of all of us, [and] Dick Van Dyke is a big part of that,” she continued.

Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for the actor.

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Dick Van Dyke’s wife Arlene Silver hosted the fundraising event in his absence. (Getty Images)

Van Dyke celebrated his 99th birthday in December. The “Dick Van Dyke Show” star opened up about his age while appearing in Coldplay’s music video for the song “All My Love.”

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

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Cast of the “Dick Van Dyke Show,” circa 1965. (Getty Images)

“I think I’m one of those lucky people who got to do for a living what I would have done anyway,” he added. “When you think how lucky I am – I got to do what I do, play and act silly.”

Dick Van Dyke became famous in the 1960s. (Getty Images)

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In September, Van Dyke opened up about how he’d like to be remembered following his Creative Arts Emmy win. 

“For laughter,” he said while holding his trophy for outstanding variety special for “Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic,” per People magazine. “I hope for making people laugh for 75 years.”

Fox News Digital’s Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.

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