Dick Van Dyke just turned 93, and he is the ultimate example of #aginggoals.
It's official. Nobody is better at aging than Dick Van Dyke. The beloved, energetic star of film and television is celebrating his 93rd birthday, and he's showing no signs of giving in to his age.
Maybe he was born with superhuman stores of energy from the get go. Maybe his humor and childlike wonder about the world has kept that twinkle in his eye and spring in his step. Maybe he was infused with some actual Disney magic at some point. Who knows.
One thing is for sure, though—Dick Van Dyke has mastered the art of growing young.
I mean, check him out at 90. Um, yeah. All the goals right here:
He returns to the big screen this month in Disney's "Mary Poppins Returns." Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Those of us who can't imagine a Mary Poppins film without Van Dyke's jaunty footwork needn't worry. He will be playing the role of an elderly—but surprisingly spry, of course—London banker, whom director Rob Marshall has clarified is the son of Mr. Dawes played by Van Dyke in the original film.
Will the 93-year-old will bring the the flavor of fun he always brings to a production? Is that even a serious question? Dick Van Dyke equals delight. Always. That's just fact.
He revealed in his 2011 memoir the ridiculous lengths he went to to land his extra role in the original movie.
In the original Mary Poppins, Van Dyke played Poppins' friend, Bert, a lively chalk artist, chimney sweep, and general jack-of-all-trades. But he coveted the role of the elderly Mr. Dawes from the time he first read the script, and was determined to convince Walt Disney to let him play it.
“I loved portraying old men, and since first reading the script, I had been secretly eyeing that part," the actor wrote in his memoir, “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.” “I saw a lot of potential for extracurricular amusement.”
Disney had him test for the role, so Van Dyke, who was in his 30s at the time, dressed up in a white wig and beard and improvised the part “I was stooped over, talking like the very senior banker, and having a blast amusing both the crew and myself,” he wrote.
He even pretended to have to stop and pee in the bushes every few minutes. “‘I’m a weak old man because of a hernia,’ I explained in a wheezy voice,” Van Dyke wrote.
Disney relented and gave him the part—but only if he donated $4000 to Disney's California Institute of the Arts. “I ended up paying him a not insignificant amount of money to play a part I had offered to do for free,” Van Dyke wrote. “I’m still scratching my head over at that one.”
Van Dyke has had some close calls, but he's always come up smiling.
The actor was an alcoholic for 25 years and a heavy smoker for much of his adult life, but has lived a clean and sober life in his later years. In 2013, his Jaguar caught fire on the L.A. freeway and Van Dyke was pulled from the vehicle by a stranger who thought he was slumped over at the wheel. (It turns out Van Dyke was just bent over gathering things he wanted to rescue from the fire.) People started worrying when the star revealed that he had been suffering from some neurological issues and headaches, until he said the problem was his titanium dental implants.
I'm starting to wonder if Dick Van Dyke is actually made of titanium himself. He just keeps dancing his way through life, putting all of us younger folks to shame.
Here's to another joyous trip around the sun, sir. Please do us a favor and live forever.
Check out the master ager talking about his latest role:
- The delightful—and timely—story of how 'A Spoonful of Sugar' ended up in 'Mary Poppins' - Upworthy ›
- The delightful—and timely—story of how 'A Spoonful of Sugar' ended up in 'Mary Poppins' - Upworthy ›
- 95-year-old Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke spotted handing out cash to job seeking strangers - Upworthy ›
- Justine Bateman boldly embraces her aging face, putting a new spin on 'aging goals' - Upworthy ›
- Dick Van Dyke revealed as "The Masked Singer" at age 97 - Upworthy ›
- 20-year-old who lives in a van shares how she stays safe - Upworthy ›



A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.